The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

This is the thread where you can submit reviews for the Best Review contest. The thread is open for submissions and will close at Midnight EST on May 18, 2013. Voting will start the next day and run until the end of the day on May 31st. The person whose review gets the most votes will get to design a 20 point task for the Summer Challenge.

Just a reminder that each person can only submit one review - but you can make edits to your review up until the end. The review does not have to be any particular length and doesn't have to be a positive one (i.e. you can choose to review a book you didn't like).

PLEASE DO NOT comment on people's reviews in this thread - this is for submissions only - you will be able to comment when voting begins.

SPOILER ALERT!- These reviews may include spoilers.

Nick KY

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Brick mopes around the house all day in his pajamas mourning the death of his old football buddy Skipper. He’s more interested in moping than in the attentions of his wife, Maggie the Cat, as she slinks around him in her silky slip. This worries Brick’s parents, Big Daddy and Big Momma, because the old plantation house where they live was built by two men who lived in it together, even sharing a bedroom, and there’s a complicated cloud of sexual decadence that hangs over the place. Brick’s brother and sister-in-law, whom they call Brother-Man and Sister-Woman, have a brood of children, but Big Daddy favors Brick and wants him to pay more attention to Maggie. (Notice how, because of Beg Daddy’s favoritism, the family revolves around Brick.)

Dysfunctional?

Such is the typically grotesque nature of this Southern Gothic by Tennessee Williams – big, spooky plantation house with all kind of goin’s-on inside that’s not exactly 1950’s family type stuff -- it’s not the Donna Reed Show.

In the middle of all this sexuality lurks traditional agrarian themes associated with “Southern” literature – the decadence of the Industrial takeover of American individualism, the dark specter of everyone’s inevitable mortality, stuff like that. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but I drink it down eagerly.

This particular play is most likely not even in my top 5 of TW’s, (those honors in my book would go to “Streetcar,” “Glass Menagerie,” “Suddenly Last Summer,” “Summer and Smoke,” and “Night of the Iguana,” probably in that order) but that doesn't mean it’s not good. A re-read every now and then is definitely worthwhile.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo

I really enjoyed this book, though it was depressing. I don't think it was as depressing as I feared, and it often wasn't depressing for the reasons you would think. The conditions of life were not gruesomely described (though there were a few mentions of infections, fungus and parasites that were disturbing). The vastness of corruption was what depressed me. Moneys from the government, non-profits (even the existence of non-profits) and organizations outside of India were completely and totally corruptible. I will never again look at a picture of smiling school children the same. The governments are on the take, the local officials are on the take, the building owners are on the take, the teachers are on the take, hell, even the children in the picture may be getting the money that's supposed to be spent on books just to pose for that picture. *sigh* I'm far too naive and have far too little worldly experience.

However, all that said, the people who live in the slums do what they can to not only survive, but thrive. Some are on the take, but others look to education, a good marriage, or picking up and sorting the scraps left behind by their wealthy neighbors. However, when you are living on the thinnest of threads, it doesn't take much to break it. Everyone can be subject to the devastation of a flood, or of a drought, of a connection gone bad, of a spiteful neighbor or of a terrorist attack. The final thing that depressed me, and probably moreso because I've seen it here in America, is the lack of coming together of these poor destitute people. They would rather fight each other than pool their energies to fight the wealthy who are usurping their moneys meant for schools and jobs. Someone will always be willing to undersell someone else. *sigh*