Huck Finn

I have read Tom Sawyer quite a while ago, and really enjoyed it. The narrative was fun, the characters and setting were also great, but what made the book work was the story itself, and the antics of the characters. Everyone's favorite character was always Huckleberry Fin, so it makes since that the next book would be about him. What I didn't expect was that the book would be told completely through Huck's prospective, and in the first person. It is also in broken english, with I thought would be a big problem, but it has its charm. Over all, I am really enjoying this book.

Rules

Rules is a very subtle, sad book. Either that, or it's just as boring as heck. I really don't know. Let me explain. Until the last few chapters of the book, our heroine mainly does... not much of anything, I guess. She has an autistic brother, and she kinda loves him, but is also kinda embarrassed by him, and is also kinda disappointed with her parents, and kinda angry at this other kid, but all of these emotions are very skimmed over, and therefor, not very potent. Again, is it just lazily throwing in clichés, or is it just too subtle for me? I mean I guess a 12 year old like the main character probably has a lot of confusing quick emotions running through her head, but that doesn't seem like the angle they'r going for either. they keep trying to go in different directions with the story, and you can tell that the author is trying as hard as they can to do something really meaningful, and sometimes, she succeeds, but there's a whole lot of mediocrity to wade through. It's like the author knew they wanted to say something really amazing and powerful, but isn't really sure quite what. I think I might be a bit old for this book, and the everyday antics that the characters engage in to me have about as much tension and drive to them as a "Bob Book," but it's not terrible. In fact, I would say to check it out anyway, if what I'm griping about doesn't tend to bother you.

1984

Again, I continue to vastly prefer vintage dystopian literature to the modern stuff. 1984 is a revealing jaunt through an unsettlingly accurate caricature of our own society right down to the subtle survalence of each of our daily activities. The book speaks to the horror of our own supposed modernist idea of community. But my personal favorite element of this magnification is the addition of big brother, who is subliminally watching everyone in the city and who's ambiguous image is strewn onto the walls and buildings. There are many subliminal images and messages in real society, and big brother just magnifies it. That said, the book does seem to loose some momentum for me towards the middle, but the romance is very believable and in a great way, average. there are also some very slow chapters there. `Take it or leave it, but there's definitely something here.