Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (1969)

I've read Vonnegut before.  Not in High School, but I've enjoyed his style and unique perspective a few occasions prior to this but in my adult life.  Of the many books on this list, I was looking forward to tackling this one and I was not disappointed.

To say this is a story about war would be an oversimplification.  This is, to me, a story about life after war.  A little discombobulated at first, Vonnegut jumps around a great deal in time and reality throughout the book, often times within a singular chapter.  It's definitely one of those stick-with-it-and-you'll-get-it stories.  Fortunately, you don't need to wait terribly long for things to come together.

Two things I enjoyed the most out of this story were the subtle connecting phrases used throughout the book: "So it goes." "More or less." "Poo-tee-weet."  I also enjoyed Vonnegut's signature meta-cognisant, almost humorous, story-telling.  I'd heard the following quote before, but was pleasantly surprised when I came across it in the novel, "discovering" where it came from:  "But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned to a pillar of salt. So it goes. People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore."

HIGH SCHOOL ME: The jury is still out on this.  I would like to think I would have enjoyed this, however, I don't know.  Given the right guidance, perhaps.  I'm not sure I had enough of a literary appreciation for this type of winking story-telling, but maybe I'm not giving my high-school self enough credit.  Let's go with "yes question mark."

Waiting For Godot - Samuel Becket (1953)

The second of the two on the list that I had never heard of before, this one fared much better.  This does not mean I understood what it was about, per se, however, I enjoyed it and finished it in a day's time.

The play contains only five characters - six if you admit that one is mysteriously played by the same actor and seven if you include the titular, but absent Godot - and reads like long, confused Abbot and Costello routine.  Mostly wandering and confusing in plot, there are many humorous moments that were quite vivd on the page and would be potential hilarious on the stage, particularly the radish/carrot moment and the hat-exchanging routine.

I did a little Wiki-research afterward and it seems Becket never really elaborated on his original intent and there is an abundance of interpretations, ranging from politics to religion to history and beyond.  Since not much happens and much is left to artist preference as far as descriptions and time period, this seems to make the analyzers' unending hypotheses that much more creative and, well, unending.  I, personally, have no idea.  But I liked it.

HIGH SCHOOL ME: Given that I had mostly engaging and dynamic English teachers in High School, I am confident they any of them, should they have chosen to teach this play, would have done it in such a way that it would have been entertaining and meaningful.  Or, with as much meaning as one could possibly glean from Becket's twisted little world.  I think I would have liked it then.

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston (1937)

I remembered more of this story than I thought I did, and may actually have read the entire thing while I was in high school.  I think this may actually have been a novel I chose to read from an approved list of books within the historical/literary context.  What I do remember was I picked it because my family had an old copy of my cousin's in our house and I had easy access to it!

Although Hurston uses a lot of slang and dialect in her writing, the story is easy enough to follow and interesting throughout.  Told almost entirely in flashback working toward the present, the story follows the complicated life of Janie Crawford, a girl from the south, born poor and raised by her grandmother, who struggles with finding happiness and figuring out who's definition of happiness she should agree with.

Reading this story as an adult I found a lot of parallels to current "Millennial Generation" life themes, such as the idea of being your own person and doing what is right for you and not doing things because society says you should do them.  Janie marries twice - one for stability because Grandma wanted it, another for money and status because society says it was a right - before marrying a third time to someone others thought was wrong, but she felt happiest with.

This is far from a fairytale ending type of novel, however, you do end with some contentment as Janie finally has found herself and is represented as a strong and independent woman, living her own life, making her own decisions, for her own wellness.

HIGH SCHOOL ME: Like I said, I think I liked this book in high school.  I know that I didn't appreciate all of the nuances of Janie's life or some of the broader life-struggles, however, it did keep me engaged.  I think high schoolers today might enjoy this novel if they compare it to social media and societal expectations (in addition to the major race and gender themes, obviously!) while they read.

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf (1925)

This was not the auspicious start I had in mind for this project.  I chose Mrs. Dalloway to read first because it was one of the few on the list I had never heard of before.  Now I know why.  If I'm being honest, it was hard to get into this novel to start with, and even harder to keep my eyes open while reading it.

I blame this on several factors: First, nothing happens in the book.  The entire story is about Clarissa Dalloway, a middle-aged wealthy English woman who thinks herself ancient, running around town making arrangements for some party she is throwing that no one seems super excited to attend in the first place. Also, everyone in the story seems to be throwing themselves their own internal pity-parties; hearing about inane "first world" problems for an entire book gets old.

Secondly, the style Woolf uses was distracting to me.  If someone handed this text in today to their English teacher, I feel it would get a poor grade along with demands to "edit, edit, edit."  There were more semicolons in this book than in the sum total of all the books I've read up this point in my life.

Lastly, the titular character (and Woolf, for that matter) drop names like it's going out of style.  It's customary to feel a little out of place and confused at the start of any novel, however, when you're still asking "wait, who?!?" in the middle - that's a problem.

HIGH SCHOOL ME: Adult me was bored to tears; high school me would have had an express pass on the struggle bus with this one.  Maybe the reason I had never heard of this novel before is because it's not commonly taught anymore???  I'm going to go with that and hope, for the kids' sake, it's true.