Somebody gave me an Isaac Asimov hardcover book with several Foundation stories/books in it. I tried to read it when I was 10-12 years old, didn’t interest me at all. Then when I was in my later teens I tried again and was hooked, I read every Asimov sci-fi book and story I could get my hands on.
I think that if you don’t read On The Road in high school, it’s probably too late. By the time I was in college, Kerouac’s characters already seemed incredibly irritating to me.
I re-read All the King’s Men recently. I liked it okay in high school, but I loved it this time around. Willie Stark is such a deeply flawed man who’s still trying to do good in his way. And I grooved on the minor characters like Tiny Duffy and Sadie Burke in a way I hadn’t before.
Same thing with To Kill a Mockingbird. I read it in middle school, but it wasn’t until I re-read it in my 20s that I picked up on a lot of the racial and social nuances. And I realized how funny it is in parts. (The image of Scout dressed up as a Ham for her school pageant always makes me smile.)
I had to ask my mom to explain the passages in **Then Again, Maybe I Won’t ** where he is worried about going up to the board or walking around without a book or coat in front of his crotchal area. She chuckled and then let me in on the plight of the young man (“Honestly, how do you live with those things?”).
And I didn’t know what had happened to Tess of the d’Urbervilles from reading it; luckily I had seen the movie to understand she was raped.
As far as bigger themes…I still don’t usually pick on those very well, being pretty literal-minded.
OK I’ll bite. Elaborate on your :smack: moment a bit and explain what you now think happened to Smith at the end?
He’s sitting talking to whatsername and imagines the whole execution thing.
Took me a couple of reads, too.
My teacher had to point that out to us in class. She’s lying in the forest asleep, Alec is watching her, it’s a calm peaceful quiet night–wait, she’s back at home now? And she’s got a kid? WTF?
I also never saw Tess killing Alec coming in a million years. It kind of feels like Hardy didn’t know how to finish the book and blasted through with an everyone-dies ending (complete with: “here, marry my little sister! She’s just like me in every way, except totally sweet and angelic!”)