Favorite books, remembered, re-read many times. Reading them, one wonders what people see in THE GREAT GATSBY, where all the people are so shallow.... In the books/authors below, one meets real and great people, and gain insight into life. There is more literature and wisdom in a thousand books I could name, or the tiniest verses by Yeats or Auden,than in an ounce or pound of Fitzgerald. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, by Thornton Wilder, who also wrote OUR TOWN, a great play. A Franciscan Monk investigates what brought three people to their deaths when the bridge collapsed. His investigations disclose the complexity and hidden nature of life, and lead him to death at the hands of the Inquisition. DEATH COMES TO THE ARCHBISHOP, by Willa Cather, who also wrote the great MY ANTONIA. This novel is based on Archbishop Lamy of Sante Fe, who was memorialized also in Paul Horgans great LAMY OF SANTA FE. This is the story of a priest who comes to early New Mexico, and of his life and encounters. Paul Horgan also wrote the great RIO GRANDE, his history of the Rio Grande River. I am reminded of these books, because I recently passed through New Mexico--several times this year, including a trip to Carlsbad Caverns-- where, as in Texas on the Pecos, I listened to the songs of the Canyon Wren. There are other such novels--I think of Kiplings KIM--which are too little regarded, when they are pure gold in an ocean of dross. As George Herbert wrote of poetry, it can treat of ALL things, even of good and valuable ones. There is a modern tendency, heresy even, which thinks that only evil is attractive. Sometimes the little books are better than the great ones. Trust your heart more than the canon.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Oct 2013 15:02:58 +0000
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