Franny and Zooey by J.D.Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorite books of all time. (I did a review for it!) I love it so much. I think that everyone who read it and loved it, felt inclined to read Franny and Zooey too. I didn't have high expectations for it. I didn't expect to like it as much as the Catcher in the Rye. Still, this book left me feeling really weird and unable to decide whether I like it or not. 

I cannot even give a synopsis because there is no plot here. It's a story about finding yourself and coming to terms with how the world is and who it works. And maybe also dealing with the ghosts of your siblings, dead or alive. Yeah, it seems weird. But that's how I see it. 

Zooey is very similar to Holden. That kind of personality echoes through all the male characters in the book, more or less. So, that indicates that this was in fact written by Salinger. But the writing itself, didn't seem like it was him. Or to put it better, the style of the writing had no similarities to the Catcher at all. I don't think I could've guessed that it was Salinger based on the writing alone. I didn't expect that. 

I really liked the book at the beginning. It starts out with Franny and kind of describes the challenges and troubles she's facing. And it seemed to me that I was really going to love this book. But than that whole "plot" line cuts. The whole perspective shifts in time and moves to her family house and her brother, Zooey. And this wasn't done seamlessly. It was very weird and awkward. That's the only way to describe it. 

Also, there were a lot of religious motives in the book. It kept revolving around them and I just didn't particularly enjoy it. It wasn't something I liked and I wanted to read. 

I liked this book at times a lot. Zooey's conversations with his moms and Franny were really nicely written and at those points I really loved the book and the writing and the characters. But then, it would shift again to those religious things and I was a bit put off. It seemed odd in a way.

I ended up giving this book 3/5 stars on Goodreads just because I felt really bizarre after I finished it. I don't think I would necessarily recommend this book, but I think that a lot of people would probably enjoy it. In fact, there are a lot of great reviews for it. Somehow, it just wasn't my cup of tea. 

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton

I picked up this book solely on the fact that there is a lot of reference to it, in books, movies and etc. 

But nonetheless, I loved it. It was really good. 

It's a story about a boy named Ponyboy (real name, not a nickname) who lives in a world where everyone is, according to him, divided into two groups- Socs (sort for Socials) and Greasers. He belongs to the latter group. Socs are rich, preppy kids, who have it easy in life, and can get a way with anything. Greasers are kids with slick, greased hair, who are kind of thug-ish, and they always have to watch their backs. Pony lives with his two brothers (their parents passed away) and spends his days with a group of his friends believing that Socs are bad, Greasers are good and that's just the way life is. Until one night, he and his friend Johnny get jumped by Socs and Johnny ends up stabbing one of them and actually killing him. From this moment on, Ponyboy starts seeing the world a little differently and learns that not everything is so black-and-white.

I really liked this book, did I say that? I think the story has an honest voice. It flows vividly and kind of... consistently, I would say. Nothing feels to much or to little, it's kind of just right. The characters were amazing, they had dimension and they were complex. And that's not such a common thing, especially in a short book like this one, where there isn't a lot of room for pulling off characterization. But it was indeed pulled off here. I thought the author did an amazing job in transferring the thoughts and feelings of these boys, who have to grow up in such harsh environment and conditions. And this is a coming-of-age story, the realization that not everything is always as it seems and that actually there is so much more to people than we see, or believe. It's a book that makes you think, I feel that that is always nice. 

I liked the whole premise of Greasers and Socs. I think these kind of things are quite often. Kids do tend to divide themselves in these sort of groups and they end up not understanding anyone outside their little bubble. I feel like that aspect is covered nicely here, and the story shows how flawed and wrong it is. 

Anyways, really great book, I would recommend it to anyone and I give it 5/5 stars.

Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

So, here we are again with another cult classic, Fahrenheit 451. I feel like everyone has read this book and I think that a lot of people loved it. I didn't.

This is a dystopian novel which follows Guy Montag, who is a fireman. But in this post-literate future, firemen don't put out fires, they start them. More specifically, they burn books. Books are not allowed as they are thought to be the source of everything bad that has ever happened. But, Guy isn't happy. He finds himself questioning his life with his wife and the whole prospect of burning books. As always, there are people who defy the law, and they hide books and try to sustain the fashion of reading. Guy slowly becomes that guy (ha) and finds himself on the run from the fire departments Mechanical Hound which hunts those who try to preserve books.

There are several reasons why I didn't like this book. Firstly, I don't share Bradbury's concerns. In his futuristic society, people are engulfed in technology (Guy's wife is a huge fan of these soap-opera thingys which are broadcasted on huge screens in their house) and they don't really care about each other and generally have short attention spans. I just don't think that technology does that to people and that it will do that. When it comes to it, I am all for moving forward. I think that the Internet and computers have made possible to connect with people more. I find that a lot of people have made lasting friendships because of it. Also, it enabled to sustain friendships in spite of distance. (This is in my own experience, since my two best friends moved away and we keep in contact thanks to the Internet). Even writing this, and some people (very few, but still) being able to read it, it's because of the Internet and technology. I feel that the whole premise of people losing touch and becoming unsociable is misplaced.

So I think that the focal point here is that technology made people unsociable and led to their short attention spans which then led to them not being able to concentrate on books. But what I found is that people choose to view that burning books is about censorship. This makes it so much more relatable to today's reader. And in that view it is. So in terms of viewing this whole book in that way, I could've surpassed the main source (i.e. technology), and still liked the book.

But we come to the second problem which was the writing. I just didn't like it. I felt that it had so many unnecessary metaphors and I just think that it was sometimes going in to such detail which didn't bring anything to the plot. Furthermore, I feel like there really wasn't a plot there. I felt that the book wasn't going anywhere and wasn't explaining anything. I felt that it kinda went in circles.

I believe, that this book is overrated. And yes, I do believe that there isn't any real plot here, but maybe this is just about the message and not so much about the writing itself. Still, I can't say that I enjoyed it. I am glad that I read, since it's considered such a classic, but I just don't think that this book is good. I know that a lot of people will disagree but for me it was almost unreadable. Almost.

Review: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I often see this book on lists of books you should read before you die or novels you shouldn't miss etc. but I was never personally attracted to it. I knew that Sylvia Plath was a poet, and I was never really into poetry (excluding Bukowski). Still, I decided to give this one a go and see if I like it. And in the end I did.

This book tells the story of Esther Greenwood (Sylvia's semi alter-ego), a young girl who comes to New York after having won a competition and she seems to have this amazing, bright future ahead of her. But, since the beginning of the novel, you can sort of see that not everything is great with Esther. She slowly starts to lose her mind and kind of starts sinking into a kind of depression. She ends up dropping out of school and going home, where her mother isn't sure how to help her. She takes her to a psychiatrist who refers her to this mental institution, where they specialize in shock therapy.
I know this summary doesn't really tell much, but the plot isn't really what you should be curious about. It's the way you can actually read how Esther feels and how she spirals further down to her illness.
I really liked the way Plath writes, at least in this book. It's crisp and so honest. It's a sincere story of a young woman who tries really hard to battle her inner demons and problems. I like that you kind of get a glimpse to a mind of someone who is sick and you can see how that person thinks and what she has to go through on a day to day basis. For me personally, this was so important, given the fact that I am going to be starting psychological studies. This book also made me quite sad. You can see Esther who can't get away from herself, who is starting to live inside her own head, isolated from the world. It also shows how attempts from her surrounding to help her fail and why that happens.
So the whole concept of the book and certain thoughts were amazing. But it did take me a lot to read this book. It wasn't a compelling book that I couldn't stop reading. The writing got messy and jumbled at certain points, and was a bit hard to understand at times, at least for me. Also, I was expecting more from this book somehow so it was a bit of a letdown. But in the end, I really did enjoy it and I appreciated the insight. I would recommend this book because I think it really is one of those books that you have to read to understand, even if you don't necessarily like it.