Tuesday, January 3, 2012

the MAGNIFICENT ambersons

This is the book I am reading.* As of now, it's about as interesting as it's cover.

Ok. I'm being a hater.  The Magnificent Ambersons won the Pulizter Prize for literature in 1919, the second year of the award's existence. The book is one of a series of three (it is the middle book), but it doesn't read like that, thankfully, I was able to start and didn't feel like I was stepping in the middle of an epic.  The Magnificent Ambersons is a book, I think, that is about a post-Gilded age (~1900) "dynasty" of the (you guessed it....) Amberson family who reside in small-town Indiana (I gather the author modeled the town off of Indianapolis, where he is from... THANKS WIKIPEDIA!!)

So far, the Amberson heir, George Minafer, seems to be a bit of an ass, and has a mother with a past.  He is, as you would imagine, incredibly spoiled (by the aforementioned mother, and the rest of the town who lives in fear of the Amberson wrath), and the author hasn't given him ANY redeeming qualities.  Manipulative bastard.

Of course, the mother seems to have a story with the father of the new girl in town (and OF COURSE the new girl has caught the eye of the young George.)  I'm calling it right now that the new guy (Mr. Morgan) is really the true love of George's mom (I really should know her name by now) and that George's father is not really the brow-beaten shadow of a man named Mr. Minafer, but is Mr. Morgan. BA-BAM!

That being said, the book really isn't too difficult to read (my main fear), and perhaps it's because of books like these, which were obviously deemed good literature, are the reasons we have the stereotypical situations that I am so keen to hate on.  I'd like to think so.

*I am also attempting to read other books, but I'm not sure how long I'm going to be able to keep that up,  stay faithful to this resolution, AND satiate my internet t.v. addiction.  Right now I am reading an e-book copy of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, which truly has been delightful.  I have two Stephen King books checked out now, after my SUPER experience with 11/22/63, but It and Under the Dome   will (probably won't) get read.

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