Deb Nance

Can a reader say I liked The Castle? Loved it? If one does, what does that say about the reader?

I think all would agree that The Castle has one of the oddest plots ever written. A man comes to a castle, wants to work there, and has to find ways to get the attention of the people in the castle. He never does much of anything in the story except try to gain entry to the castle and he never successfully does that.

It's the feeling of the book that is so close to the bone; it's a story of the feelings of modern life. Kafka captures the anxiety and the dread and the confusion and the anomie of day-to-day life in the world, and he does it in a way that makes the reader feel all the anxiety and the dread and the confusion and the anomie.

It's brilliant and terrifying. I'm glad I read it. I'm glad I'm done with it.

No, with killing and bombings
and trash dumped in the street
and racial hatred, Kosovo doesn't
sound like a great place to visit.
But when Paula Huntley's husband
was sent to Kosovo to help
establish a legal system, Huntley
impulsively decides to accompany
him and later jumps into teaching
a group of Kosovo Albanians
English. Unexpectedly, Huntley
falls in love—with the country,
with its people.

Yes, I'd heard of Kosovo, but
I doubt I'd have been able to
write a coherent essay explaining
much about the conflict there
prior to reading this book.
I recommend this book. In some
ways, it reminded me of Reading
Lolita in Tehran. But can we
self-centered Americans ever
read too much about areas of
the world where people don't
spend most of their day at
the mall or playing Nintendo?

Too stark.

What is it about a graphic novel
that I have difficulty with?
I can't seem to take it seriously
somehow. Graphic novels seem to
lend themselves more to humor
than to tragedy. The darkness
of the book, the bleakness of
the perspective, the grimness
of the world....it appears
excessive.

Despite my problems with the genre,
I'd have to say that Watchmen is
the best graphic novel I've read
so far. The characters are more
complex and the plot is more
intricate than other graphic novels
I've read. I'd like to give this
genre another chance. Is there a
kinder, gentler world depicted
in a graphic novel? That's the
graphic novel I'd like to sample.