Books that you didn't "get" when you were younger?

Cafe Society
41

Sinclair Lewis’s Arrowsmith. We were assigned the book in high school, and I hated it. I thought that the title character was an abrasive, indecisive prima-donna jerk-off who pined his way through the whole book about how he couldn’t find his special purpose or whatever, like it was that hard. He went through bad relationships and interacted with shallow and bitter friends, and he couldn’t seem to make up his mind about what he wanted to do until the very end. As if it were so difficult to figure out! :rolleyes:

Fifteen years later, I read the book again in my early 30’s, and suddenly, after my pining, and goal-changing, and confusion, not to mention my own failed relationships, I understood Martin Arrowsmith quite a bit more. I still thought he was an abrasive prima-donna, and I vastly preferred his mentor Max Gottlieb, but damn, after watching all of my prospective futures just melt away during my 20’s and coming face to face with how fallible and short-sighted I could be, I certainly empathized with Martin to a degree I would not have thought possible at 17.

42

Lewis actually did write an allegory–the Pilgrim’s Regress. It’s one of his earlier works.

43

Stephen King’s The Shining. His masterpiece, as far as I’m concerned.

I read it when I was 13, and thought it was an entertaining ghost story, but nothing more.

I read it again last year, and it blew me away. It wasn’t just a horror story; it was a psychological thriller. At 13, I didn’t yet know what alcoholism or isolation could do to a family, both mentally and physically, and I didn’t pick up on the subtle or even the not-so-subtle messages King was trying to put out. You almost didn’t need the ghosts in the Overlook. A violent alcoholic like Torrance, who–let’s face it–thought wayyy too much for his own good, was perfectly capable of being pushed into what he did by purely natural physical and psychological causes. Everything was there in the exposition and dialogue. Jack and Wendy’s individual family histories, the physical symptoms, the inner torment, the dependancy. All you had to do was know what to look for.

Another thing that struck me about The Shining was how young Jack and Wendy were. Jack was 28, and I believe Wendy was 24, although she might have been 23. (Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duval were far older when they played the couple.)

At 28, Jack Torrance was a published writer with a novel under his belt. He had graduated from college, gotten a good teaching job at an elite prep school, gotten married and started a family, lost the good teaching job through his alcoholism which prompted him to severely beat a student (who admittedly had it coming), gotten off the juice, and finally come to the Overlook to wait things out.

At 28, I was just out of the army, newly married, and my philosophy toward life could best be summed up as “Now what?” If I were faced with violent fucking ghosts in a creepy fucking haunted hotel, I doubt I would have hold out as long as Jack did, and I don’t even drink.

The Shining was Stephen King’s finest novel, hands down, no contest, IMHO.

44

Totally agree that The Shining is King’s best novel, best thing he ever wrote.

I was no kid when I read it though, can’t honestly claim I got a heckuva lot more out of it on subsequent reads. It blew me away first time.

45

Sorta like Linty Fresh and Arrowsmith (but not quite), it took me awhile to figure out that I didn’t have to like the protagonist in every book and that every book didn’t have to have a happy ending, or any resolution at all. So I didn’t appreciate a lot of books because they didn’t meet my rosy expectations.

Nowadays my favorite characters are the flawed ones, people I wouldn’t like in real life, people who’d make me uncomfortable. And my favorite endings are ambiguous, or even “bad” – the good guys don’t win,

46

“… at 17 it’s hard to see past Friday night.” – Brad Paisley, "Letter to Me

47

Linty Fresh, have you seen the film version of Arrowsmith? 1931, I think. Ronald Colman is very fine as Martin and Helen Hayes is delightful as his wife. Until she dies from smoking a plague-tainted cigarette.

48

I’ve been meaning to see it for years, but somehow I’ve never gotten around to it. I’ll have to check it out next time I go rent videos. Thanks for the heads up!

Arrowsmith is my favorite American novel, and I’m almost afraid to see its treatment on the big screen. Still, if it’s only a fraction as good as the book, it’ll be pretty damned good. :slight_smile:

49

Almost the same thing for me. I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide books in junior high, but I just didn’t understand anything that was going on in Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. I didn’t even know what “holistic” meant.

Fast forward to a couple years ago, when I listened to the audiobook versions while I was working with my brother and my dad on a construction site, and MAN, those Dirk Gently books were both incredibly awesome! I never even picked up on the time travel component to the first book, and the whole Samuel Taylor Coleridge subplot went right over my head because I had no idea who he was or what “Kubla Khan” was.

50

It’s pretty darned good.

51

Went to Catholic schools my whole life and I didn’t see it either.

I mean, let’s be honest here; the Christian allegory in the Narnia books is extremely generic, and things like self-sacrifice and rebirth are not uniquely Christian.

52

Interesting. I loved Out of the Silent Planet when I read it at about 14, and still think it’s a great SF novel. But Perelandra was only so-so – interesting setting, but little (and obvious) plot (I read somewhere that Lewis was most interested in the world building, not the story). That Hideous Strength I was unable to finish.

Also, I have never read the Narnia books. All I knew Lewis for was Out of the Silent Planet. I may be willing to give it all a try, but, generally religious symbolism and allegory bore me.

53

When I was 12 I started reading a book that my stepdad would leave in the bathroom. I wanted to try an adult book, just to see if I could get through it. It was called Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck. Wasn’t bowled over by its pace, but it did hold my attention enough to finish it. This thread just reminded me of that book. I’m gonna find it and reread it and see if I’ve changed any.

In junior high I read Candy by Terry Southern. Later, maybe ten-twelve years I discovered that the book was actually funny and without the underlined parts.

54

I was raised Baptist and went to a private Christian school, and I’d read The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe at least ten times before I saw the parallels. I was maybe ten years old, and it was the first time I’d ever figured out symbolism like that. Boy, did I feel smart!

55

I tried reading Poul Anderson’s The Alien Stars and Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World when I was very young, and had trouble making sense of what was going on. Nothing earth-shattering there, and no revelations brought on my increased experience. I was just too young.

56

I had to read Catcher in the Rye for my summer reading list between 7th and 8th grade. I thought it was a very funny book. I did not see Holden falling apart or anything. The parts where he would start crying or something… just didn’t register with me. I remember the report I wrote on how it was a funny book. There’s humor there, of course, but Holden’s falling apart… I did not see it. I read it again in college and was stunned.

57

Gatsby. I read it too young; I have no idea what was going on or what any of it meant. I could go re-read it, but I’d feel like a boat against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

58

Well, I definitely feel better about that now. And I guess a lot of the symbolism is fairly generic, with the fairly standard mythological heros and the clear-cut Good vs. Evil and such. I think part of what made it glaringly obvious for me on the second reading was a combination of actually reading the Bible at the time, and reading a bit about Lewis’s religious views.

59

The Narnia books have allegorical aspects, but as pointed out, aren’t STRICTLY allegorical. Only three books have direct parallels to the Bible- Lion&Witch to the Gospels, Magician’s Nephew to Genesis, and of course, The Last Battle to Revelation.

My OP- the end of Orwell’s 1984. When I was in high school, I thought that Smith was literally being led to execution & in his dying moments realized that he loved Big Brother. Just a few years later in college, I was re-reading it & had my :smack: moment!

60

To twist the OP a bit…

Watch Karate Kid when you are 17 ish…then watch it again when you are 40ish.

Completely different movie.

Things I didn’t get when I was 17 like “Why does the mentor make the kid do so many things without telling him why? Doesn’t he know he may quit and go away?” are obvious when you are 40.