THURSDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2002
BOOKS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7
Reading a worthwhile pursuit during break
By Henry C. Jackson
cjackson@kansan.com
Jayplay writer
With winter break just a finals week away, it's time to consider what to do with all that free time. Contrary to popular belief, we are allowed to indulge in intellectual pursuits when school is not in session.
Winter break offers something college can't deliver: free time.
Take advantage of the schoolwork-free month, and in addition to travel time, family time and "doing nothing-time," pick up a book you've been meaning to read.
To help those who might be searching for a literary companion, here are five books that will make your holidays enjoyable and stimulate your brain.
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway's large body of work offers a slew of excellent reading choices, but The Sun Also Rises is his best book. Hemingway's first novel follows the laconic Jake Barnes through a post-World War I Europe.
A literary piece demonstrative of the "lost generation," The Sun Also Rises deals with many issues among them love, dealing with an annoying friend, a whorish woman, race and religion. A short, crisp 200 pages or so, The Sun Also Rises is melancholy, short and purposeful, an ideal winter blend.
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
Set in the bizarre allegorical world of the elevator-inspection industry, Colson Whitehead's debut novel deals explicitly with race but discusses it in a disarming, incredibly humorous way.
While Whitehead's editor should be chided — there are far too many dependent clauses without commas, occasionally making reading difficult for the grammatically informed - The Intuitionist squeezes race issues as if they were an orange, resulting in one somewhat pulpy but extremely satisfying glass of juice.
Fasf Foof Nafim, Eric Schloesser
A warning: if you are a fast-food junkie and would like to stay that way, this may not be the book for you this holiday season. If, however, you'd like to know what's
in your meat, literally and figuratively, then Eric Schlosser's grilling non-fiction Fast Food Nation satisfies.
Detailing the rise of fast-food tycoons, the apathy of fast-food workers, woeful conditions in meat plants, globalization of fast-food chains and the preposterously bad luck of a man named Kenny. Fast Food Nation is a muckraking, frightful account of an industry perhaps more pervasive then any other in the United States.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X and Alex Haley
A biography may seem cumbersome for winter break reading, but fact is often far more interesting than fiction. Such is certainly the case with The Autobiography of Malcolm X, an informative, interesting retelling of one of the United States' most controversial and visible civil rights leaders. Malcolm X's life is as interesting as any fiction novel, and, written by Alex Haley, the author of Roots, it comes alive.
For those lacking ambition, The Autobiography of Malcolm X's 500 plus page count may seem daunting, but you'll be thankful when you realize how much you've learned about one of the United States' most maligned and confused figures.
The Corrections Jonathan Franzen
Ignore his spat with Oprah Winfrey and his off-putting pompousness. Jonathan Franzen is a great writer, and The Corrections proves it. Franzen's third novel is a meandering social novel with big ideas told through the small lens of the Lambert family.
Attimes darkly funny and painfully serious, Franzen encapsulates his distrust of modern society into the travails of the rapidly- declining Lamberts. Franzen's novel is sweeping.
It deals with the economic decline of third-world countries, victims of industrialization and the struggle to control harmful impulses.
It also addresses death, poor parenting, declining health and The Chronicles of Narnia.
With well-drawn, devastatingly familiar characters to propel Franzen's big ideas, The Corrections will hit home, and that's about all you can ask of a novel these days.