February 2012
3 posts
2 tags
Hemingway's only American Novel
Though Hemingway is known for his time in Key West, he only has one novel set there. And it is, honestly, one of my favorites: To Have and Have Not. This also happens to be his only novel set in America. It is fitting that his only novel set in America is a place much on the fringe of American life, a foreign place.
The novel depicts Harry Morgan, a boat captain who takes tourists out for fishing...
January 2012
2 posts
3 tags
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
I just booked a flight to visit my lovely sister in Nashville in a couple weeks. Of courses she moves to Tennessee as soon as I leave. I thought in honor of my trip and in honor of my recent home (Memphis), I’d write a post about Peter Taylor’s novel, A Summons to Memphis.
This is about a man who got away from Memphis. He lives in New York City with his girlfriend of many years but...
2 tags
The House of Sand and Fog & the Bay Area
Also an award-winning film, this novel by Andre Dubus III paints a surreal and smoky picture of San Francisco and the coastline just south. If you are planning to drive down Highway 1 south from San Francisco, read this book first. My boyfriend and I drove from San Francisco to Carmel last summer, and we had both recently read The House of Sand and Fog. It was fun to imagine the contested house in...
December 2011
1 post
What is it all about?
This blog will be a space to recommend mainly novels to read before you travel somewhere. A guide book can only tell you so much. A novel can tell you how life was in a certain time in the place you are going to. For example, reading The Sun Also Rises can tell you how Paris in the 20s was in a way a guide book could never convey. I will try to stick to less obvious books. Hopefully these...