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It is a story about a group of young boys, who find themselves on a deserted island after their plane crashed. These boys from aged six to twelve are on their own, because there are no adult survivors. In the beginning most of the boys treat the stay on island as wonderful opportunity for continuous play and they cooperate in attempt to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Alone, without adult supervision, the boys begin with electing a leader. However, because of a disagreement their life on the island becomes increasingly violent and hellish and some of the boys have turned into savages.
This is again book about human nature, the moral conflict between good and evil, order and chaos, civilization and savagery, law and anarchy. It forces us to think about the human psyche and the irresistible desire of superiority over others. And moreover it is about the evil that is in all of us, hidden deeply. Some of us are strong enough to fight it, but not all of us are able to resist the “power”.
"Into the Wild" is a book written by Jon Krauker and published in 1996. It is a non fictional story of a Christopher McCandless, young boy who in search of truth about himself and the world took one step too far.
According to Chris "So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun."
Chris after finishing his studies gave all his savings to charity, packed backpack and set on a journey lasting two years. He came from middle class family and a lifestyle that many people could only dream about. But Chris nature demanded absolute freedom, he did not want to live according to rules impose by society that he contempt. He abandon everything and in pursue of dreams he went on journey that end in Alaska where he hoped that he would experience total freedom.
"Into the wild" is about young boy who was brave enough to reject materialism and embrace nature. It is a beautiful story that for sure affects many readers.
Mrs. Dalloway is a novel written by Virginia Woolf and published in 1925. As Woolf stated “Mrs. Dalloway" is a study of insanity and suicide. "Mrs. Dalloway" is an example of stream of consciousness storytelling and moves reader from one character consciousness to another. It takes place over the course of a single day and mainly focuses on Clarissa Dalloway an English socialite and Septimus Warren Smith a veteran and victim of the Great War.
It is not much happening in this novel: the title character walks through the city, encounters a few strangers along the way, prepares the evening reception and meets a man who she loved once. It is story about life that happens here and now and perception of reality.
This novel is examination of human personality which as we know is complex. Interaction between characters exposes different aspects of one's personality. Woolf portrays people as judgmental and superficial. She enters mind of the characters that she portrays and reader discover how twisted they are behind the facade of order, harmony and family happiness. Simply the appearance of a person is different from the real inner personality.
This book helps reader to discover that human being is multi-dimensional and probably do not have one real self. It is an excellent book.
Ernest Hemingway is one of the greatest American writers of our time and the published in 1940 novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls" is considered his greatest work.
The source for Hemingway title is a line by John Donne from his 1624 work “Devotions upon Emergent Occasions”: „any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" is a story of the fight for freedom, moral dilemmas, daily life and beauty of love in the face of war. The main character Robert is a young American who travels to Spain and volunteers to fight against the fascist forces of Francisco Franco. Robert Jordan character is inspired by Hemingway's own experiences in the Spanish Civil War.
Hemingway effective narration and reach in details language creates realistic portrait of war and the complexities of the entire experience of war for the individual who found him or herself fighting for a cause.
Hemingway is absolutely brilliant in drawing psychological portraits. His characters are complex. In this book he portrays human in the face of death, he expose weakness , strength, heroism, bravery, duty, cowardice, truth, lies, love, and loss.
This book is definitely a classic that everyone must read.
The story is set in 1945 in Barcelona. The hero of his book is Daniel, a boy who lost his mother when he was a baby. When Daniel is 10 years old, his father takes him to the secret Cemetery of Forgotten Books that is hidden in the heart of Barcelona. Ritual that is repeated in Daniel’s family for generations requires that he chose one, only one book and become the guardian of this book. It is task for life. Daniel chose a book called The Shadow of the Wind by Julián Carax.
Although, the novel draws from the first sentence, the proper action begins when Daniel grows up and decides to discover who Julián Carax was and what else he wrote. To his surprise, he discovers that someone has been destroying every copy of every book this author has written and he may have the last one that exists.
This novel has been categorized as mystery, romance, thriller and period epic. In this novel we have magic realism, pervasive secrecy, twisting and turning plots and moreover complex characterization.
It is an extraordinary book that is not to be missed.
When I first saw trailer of the movie adaptation “Revolutionary Road” I immediately knew that I have to read the book that was written by Richard Yates. The novel that was first published in 1961 is story of our times. The story line is timeless, it is a view of 1950s society which is a very realistic view of today society, and it shows how little we have transformed.
Yates set the novel in year 1955 and tells the story of April and Frank Wheeler, an American married suburban couple with two kids. It is story about their life which appears to be perfect. It turns out that both characters hate their life as it is, they hate that they are typical family with typical house and typical work. They have live in the illusion that they are destined for something grander than the life they are now leading. As April sad “Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we're special. They we're superior to the whole thing. But we're not. We're just like everyone else! We bought into the same, ridiculous delusion. That we have to resign from life and settle down the moment we have children. And we've been punishing each other for it”. The nothingness of their life is killing them and they are dealing with it in their own different ways. As a result they marriage is falling apart and they are more distant from each other.
Yates deals in this book with reality of everyday life. The novel is a portrait of a failing marriage. The realism of the dialogue is overwhelming, painfully truthful.
This book makes us question ourselves and the world we live in. “Revolutionary road” is masterpiece of realistic fiction.
