Once exams are over, and assignments no longer haunt our days, we can finally sit back and give in to the unique joy of reading. Books require time and space, so the academic year is often not entirely compatible with them. Summer, instead, with its seemingly eternal days of freedom, offers the perfect occasion to make up everything we missed during the previous months. Here are some books our we enjoyed this summer.
Out of Africa, Karen Blixen
Lorenzo Garbarino
African safaris are iconic. They are on one hand iconic because they are a status symbol, with fortunate travelers scrambling to post that picture atop a Jeep with a lion in the background (was it even a lion?). They are also iconic, however, because they represent the fragility of an ecosystem that struggles to remain true to itself.
Yet, long before safaris became a bucket-list-sort-of-thing, they were a way of life. Some Europeans, upon settling in Africa, would buy large farms with coffee or sugar plantations. Karen Blixen, one of the many pseudonyms for Karen Christentze Dinesen, spent many years on her farm “at the foot of the Ngong Hills”. In her memoir, she tells of the endless days spent hunting big game, or stalking the lion, or flying across the plains during the great migration. Blixen, though, also gives a unique account of the traditions of Africa and of the diverse peoples that inhabit it. Out of Africa is a recount of a pristine world lost forever, but also a reminder of the lasting impact of settlers in the African continent.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
Alisia Picciano
This memoir could best be described by a citation from the foreword written by Lisa Kudrow: „He’s now letting us into Matthew’s head and heart in honest and very exposed detail.“ The „he” in this case is Matthew Perry himself, and he does so in a way where you aren’t just a spectator of his life, instead you become part of his persona. Imagine you’re revisiting some old memories, thinking, maybe even speaking to yourself. Now imagine that „yourself” is really someone else, but you still give them full confidence, full personality, no filters. That’s the position where Matthew puts the reader in his memoir. His humor and writing style make his character seep through the pages allowing him to not just break the fourth wall, but also let you in through the destroyed separator.
As a reader you could be Ebenezer Scrooge, who desperately needs the spirits as a wake-up call. You could be an avid Friends fan, who probably doesn’t need this recommendation and has long checked this memoir from the reading list. And you could be anybody else willing to dedicate yourself to another person’s messy life. In the end you’ll be a different person, even if it’s just a matter of a couple of novel thoughts, which might turn into some acquired maturity.
“I was in bliss. I had no problems for those three hours. I wasn’t abandoned; I wasn’t fighting with my mom; I wasn’t doing lousy in school; I wasn’t wondering what life was about, and my place in it. It took away everything.“
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Alexandra Moutafi
The first half of “The Sun Also Rises” might have you frantically searching for its plot, the main problem, the characters’ ultimate objective. However, by the middle of the book you realize that not all good novels have to have a hero’s journey. Hemingway invites the reader to go along a trip with the characters of his book while getting to know their personality as intricately as if you were lifelong friends. It is peculiar how, despite feeling so familiar with these characters, the author still leaves some major parts of their lives unsaid. One example is the main character’s disability which is briefly alluded to in parts of the book but never explicitly described. The reader is well equipped with details on the characters’ lives to draw their own conclusions on these strategic gaps in the story.
Besides the characters, Hemingway gives a lot of emphasis to painting a picture of Pamplona, Spain during the roaring 20s. Not only how the city looked or smelled but also how it felt. The essence of the proud bullfighters traversing the streets for the festival of San Fermin, the gleam of the tourists that watched this extraordinary event, the questionable cheerfulness of the locals for such a violent affair. This prominent atmosphere created by the author is as thrilling as any epic adventure that other books may offer and leaves the reader with just as much satisfaction.
Slaughterhouse-Five, (or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death)
Jeremy Bacigalupi
“Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time”, or is he? With this opening line Kurt Vonnegut begins his seminal masterpiece, Slaughter-House-Five (or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death). And so the enduring mystery of this short novel begins. Touching on themes of trauma, PTSD, war, and dissociation through an often kooky non-linear narrative structure. As is the case with works of this kind, the true meaning of the novel is hard to determine.
Told through the perspective of a deeply unreliable narrator who witnesses the bombing of Dresden in 1945, the book has little suspense to speak of. The ultimate fate of every character is generally explicitly told to the reader as soon as we meet them. Such as poor old Edgar Derby, shot for taking a teapot in the ruins of an incinerated city; so it goes.
Though broadly accepted as a (semi) autobiographical anti-war novel, Vonnegut admits that to write an anti-war novel is as useful as “write[ing] an anti-glacier book”. Rather it is a frank account of the war, as he saw it, and an attempt, through literature, to touch on the effects of trauma in a time before modern psychology really understood it.
Despite its dark subject matter, the book is full of mirth and macabre comedy. It seeks no judgment or accusations; only to tell a simple, if not strange story as Vonnegut saw fit through his trademark brand of semi-science fiction, wit and dark humor. Its enduring legacy has made it a staple of mid century American literature.
Hillbilly Elegy, J.D. Vance
Veronika Lizier-Zmudzinski
After researching thought-provoking books to read, I came upon Hillbilly Elegy. I didn’t know who J.D. Vance was, but the reviews on how the book gave an interesting perspective on an unknown region of the United States and spoke on the economic situation of the region’s population interested me, so I picked the book as a summer read.
The memoir begins with a history of the Rust Belt, focusing on Ohio and Kentucky. The name “Rust Belt” comes from the fact that the area was used for manufacturing and production of steel. Vance explains how cultural and economic differences over generations created both pride and hardship for the working-class ‘Hillbilly’ families in the region. As an Ohio native, Vance provides a personal narrative of growing up in a working-class ‘Hillbilly’ family. One that faces instability, a family member with substance abuse, and limited opportunities. However, unlike many of his peers, he was able to take a route away from poverty and insecurity, partly through the support of his grandparents and his determination.
While his critiques of his community’s mindset can seem harsh, he also explores the systemic issues that contribute to the struggles of the region, offering a nuanced perspective. He combines his perceived sentiment of the ‘Hillbilly’ people: “There is a cultural movement in the white working class to blame problems on society or the government” with the deeply-rooted economic disparities in that region of the US.
Overall, Hillbilly Elegy sheds light on a neglected part of America and offers a message of hope, although the path to change is portrayed as difficult.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang
Egemen Aray
Many people recommend starting with shorter books to get out of the reading slump. For me, it wasn’t the case. To get back into the reading cycle that I left during the academic year, I read Yellowface by R.F. Kuang – and it most certainly didn’t disappoint.
Yellowface tells the story of June Hayward and Athena Liu, two college friends who became writers. One night, June witnesses Athena’s death, and her life changes forever. She finally finds the success she yearns for by stealing a part of Athena’s unfinished novel. Yellowface is fun, modern, and real; it is even more interesting for those looking forward to getting into the publishing industry in the future.
The abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis
Gabriele Scrima
Published in 1943 by C.S. Lewis, Christian apologist and author of The Chronicles of Narnia, this short book is one of the most brilliantly argued and influential philosophical works of the past century. In it, Lewis explores the possible sources of morality from a surprisingly secular, universalist point of view. Throughout the book, he refers to a principle he calls the Tao: a conception present in many traditions—Platonic, Aristotelian, Stoic, Christian, and Asian philosophies—that represents “the doctrine of objective value, the belief that certain attitudes are really true, and others really false, to the kind of thing the universe is and the kind of things we are.”
Instead of positively arguing for the existence of the Tao, Lewis tries to convince the reader from the opposite end of the argument: by exploring what will happen if a society gives up on its conception of the Tao; the consequences, he warns, are devastating.
First, is the complete rejection of any value judgement. Any new system that is built to replace the Tao is inevitably a “rebellion of the branches against the tree: if the rebels could succeed they would find that they had destroyed themselves”. The second major consequence is “the abolition of Man”, an incredibly prescient warning against the dangers of transhumanism. Believing to have conquered the Tao, Man will try to invent a new system for himself and finally dispense with all the ways in which Nature itself constrains and binds him; but he will have no ground to stand on in order to make that decision. No first principles will be left to guide his choices: Man will find himself bereft in the desert of his own instincts, unmitigated by reason. In our pursuit of freedom from the Tao, we risk losing what makes us distinctly human: the very principles that elevate us above mere instinct. And in our attempt to master our own nature, we may unwittingly engineer our own undoing.
The abolition of Man is full of timeless reflections, memorable quotes and thought-provoking arguments. The picture painted by Lewis of a possible future for humanity is often bleak, at times outright horrifying – and still tremendously relevant to our age. Luckily, he points to a way forward – the only way forward.
Articles written by the various members of our team.