Five Best Books: (Recovering from) Tragedy

In this week’s 5 Best Books we are asked to list our Five Best Books: (Recovering from) Tragedy. It’s a tribute to the tragic day that changed all of our lives forever, September 11^th.

I try not to read too many tragedies. Life is complicated and filled with disappointments and worries as it is. I try to take away something good from everything I read. Cassandra’s idea about listing books that are not mere tragedies but are books that can teach us something about recovering from it really appealed to me. So, here are some books that contain tragedies but have people who recover from them too. At least they have some glimmer of hope in them.

1.  Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – Losing your friends, losing yourself and then finding out it was all in vain, that’s the tragedy of the protagonist Pip’s life. Miss Havisham’s tragedy is another aspect of the story. Her tragedy eats her up and her anger at herself and at the world destroys not only her own but also the happiness of those who come in contact with her. In the end Pip does manage to recover some of his former happiness and does find some solace. Maybe it is too little, too late but at least he realizes who his friends are and who he truly is. 

2.  Seize the Day by Saul Bellow – One of my favourite reads from last year.The story explores one day in the life of an unemployed man, Tommy Wilhelm, as he tries to reconnect with the world and recover his lost dignity. This is not a happy book and it doesn’t really have a happy ending. But at least Wilhelm is forced to come face to face with himself. He finally stops running away from reality. In my opinion, that counts for something.

3.  The Ninth Life of Louis Drax by Liz Jensen – A story about a child lying comatose on a hospital bed after a near fatal fall can never be a happy book. The police’s suspicion that one of his family members might have done the deed makes the book even more disturbing. Nevertheless, the truth behind little Louis’s painful home life, when exposed, finally brings about some sense of peace and closure, even if it comes at a terrible price.

4.  The Book Thief by Markus Zusak – The scene where Liesel loses her foster father made my heart wring. Her survival even after so many tragedies is the best aspect of the book.

5.  Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot – After losing his faith in humanity, Silas Marner becomes less than human, more of a machine than a man. But he is rescued by a little girl who suddenly walks into his life and firmly guides him back to light. Even though I have ambiguous feelings towards the book in general, Silas’s relationship with his adopted daughter Eppie truly touched my heart.

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The Friday 56

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme hosted by Freda’s Voice.

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Link up at Freda’s site

Today’s sentence comes from the classic Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot.

“Ay, ay, make him sit down,” said several voices at once, well pleased that the reality of ghosts remained still an open question.

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot

As George Eliot was preparing to write the historical epic, Romola, she wrote to her publisher,

I am writing a story which came across my other plans by a sudden inspiration.

That story was Silas Marner, one of the early works of George Eliot.

Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe is the third novel by George Eliot. It was first published in 1861.

The story of Silas Marner is a simple one on the surface. A lonesome, virtually non-human entity comes across a foundling and with its touch becomes a human being. It reads almost like a fairytale.

I have rather ambiguous feelings about this book. On one hand, I do love a happy ending and everyone getting what they deserve, be it justice, love or rejection. And Eliot’s writing is good. But on the other hand, the moralizing tone of the book kind of puts me off.

The first few chapters felt very rushed. There is virtually no dialogue between any of the characters. Silas’s life at the Lantern Yard, the false accusation, his new life at Raveloe, Godfrey’s secret, Dunsey’s misdeeds, it all happens so quickly. The characters do not develop properly. Understanding everyone’s motivations isn’t easy under these circumstances.

Silas’s background isn’t properly established. The reader is supposed to feel Silas’s pain (which, I think, is absolutely essential for the plot) and feel sorry for him. But that doesn’t quite happen due to the hasty beginning.

Too much time is spent on the spineless and flaky character of Godfrey Cass. His inner turmoil and his courtship of Nancy Lammeter are given a lot of space. I felt he was given more importance than even the protagonist Silas. Dunstan Cass with his penchant for manipulation could have been an interesting character. But he disappears too quickly.

Silas’s first transformation at Raveloe when he keeps weaving clothes day and night was interesting. Losing his faith in humanity, Silas becomes less than human, more of a machine than a man. But again it felt kind of rushed.

George Eliot’s writing (in this book at least) is very easy to read. It is easier than I had anticipated.

Eliot’s insights into the human psyche are spot on. I found the following lines to be startlingly true,

Instead of trying to still his fears, he encouraged them, with that superstitious impression which clings to us all, that if we expect evil very strongly it is the less likely to come;…

As well as also the following observations about the character of Squire Cass,

The old Squire was an implacable man: he made resolutions in violent anger, and he was not to be moved from them after his anger had subsided – as fiery volcanic matters cool and harden into rock. Like many violent and implacable men, he allowed evils to grow under favour of his own heedlessness, till they pressed upon him with exasperating force, and then he turned round with fierce severity and became unrelentingly hard…Godfrey knew all this, and felt it with the greater force because he had constantly suffered annoyance from witnessing his father’s sudden fits of unrelentingness, for which his own habitual irresolution deprived him of all sympathy.  (He was not critical on the faulty indulgence which preceded these fits; that seemed to him natural enough.)

It seems as though one has actually met people like that in real life.

The second part was much better fleshed out. I enjoyed this part much more than the first one.

Eliot’s observations about children (for example, Eppie’s mischief with a pair of scissors and the subsequent events) and about animals (observations on the dog, the cat and the donkey in the second part) are very entertaining.

Overall, Silas Marner is a good read. But parts of it felt under developed. I only wish the first part of the book and Silas’s background were a little better depicted. It surely would have helped me to understand and enjoy the book better.

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