Rainy Day Classics
April showers bring listless days. Keep out of the cold rain, and get wrapped up in a book. These classics are short and sweet, but they pack a punch.
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut takes on our conception of genre, our expectations of fiction, and the human experience of immense tragedy in this, his most well known novel. With simple and earnest language he tells the story of an American soldier in World War II, his time as a German POW, and his journey beyond. It is a quick paced, visceral, and wild ride, that has sparked controversy and polarized audiences since it was first published, and continues to be an engaging and thought provoking read.
Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
This story of a small town girl taking on the excesses and tribulations of the American Dream in the big city is equal parts entertaining and heartrending. The film adaptation is iconic (or at least Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly is), and aside from a few key differences the book tells the same story. Those changes are profound though, and help make Capote’s work a deeper and more critical examination of its main character then the film comes close to.
The AwakeningKate Chopin was ahead of her time in so many ways. The Awakening bridges both the stylistic and political gap between the 19th and 20th centuries, and tells the story of its repressed and willfully bold feminine lead in detailed and highly aware language. Its themes were largely derided in its own time, and the book itself nearly forgotten, but the relevance and power of those themes and Chopin’s main character will continue to strike a chord with readers for years to come.
This cornerstone of existentialist literature is simple and concise. The main character is faced with death and murder, and a system of power and opinion turned against him. His nonchalant, pragmatic, and nearly indifferent attitude does little to help, and builds an incredible conflict between him and the world. It is all about the moments that make up a life, and how those moments look through different people’s eyes. A quick read bound to stir emotions and questions.
PersepolisIt might be premature to label this graphic-novel memoir a classic, but in just over a decade it has become a standard of the medium, and one of the most read and taught books of its type. In strikingly simple yet powerful black and white art it tells the story of the author’s coming of age in Iran amid the Islamist Revolution of the 70’s. As an intimate portrayal of day-to-day life in a country that now seems practically cut-off from the world, this work is full of revelations of the commonality of human experience, and the unique history and culture of an all too mysterious region.
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