The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller (1986)
What a great twist on the Batman story. This time through it probably wasn't as mind-blowing as my first, but still, The Dark Knight Returns is just incredible. Frank Miller spends the entire book focusing on Batman's morality, his stance on city and national government, and it gets way deeper than that. In The Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne is an aging, insanely rich man (obviously), and had retired as Batman, until Gotham City is tortured by a large crew of wretched souls dubbed Mutants. He triumphantly and scandalously returns as Batman to save the city once again, but only sort of. Do Batman's vigilante actions cause more harm than good? That is the main question in this book. Then things sort of take a turn, and shit gets really crazy with arch-nemesis The Joker (their somewhat symbiotic relationship is touched on artfully) and perhaps his second greatest enemy, Superman. The ending is just perfect. If you haven't read The Dark Knight Returns (and you're crazy and probably don't actually exist if you're a fan of comics and haven't), there is maybe only one singularly collected graphic novel that I can recommend higher (Watchmen). The Dark Knight Returns is challenging, brilliant, fun as hell and tremendous in the all encompassing way that it further complicates and darkens the character of Batman and answers many questions and then asks a shit ton more in return. Get on it, duh.
The Jungle - Upton Sinclair (1906)
Perhaps Upton Sinclair's most popular and important work, The Jungle is probably the most difficult novel I've read since I tackled One Hundred Years of Solitude last fall. Not so difficult to follow as that novel or, say, Infinite Jest, The Jungle's neverending spiral of tragedy just wore so much on the emotions. I'd argue that it is almost as overtly heavy handed as Sapphire's Push, albeit much better written and more realistic. I know that's a ridiculous comparison that a serious reader would probably be offended by, but let's consider the heavy subject matter that Sinclair covers here. The Jungle is about so much more than just the meatpacking industry. It is more broad than that. Here, Sinclair describes the life of a United States immigrant in the early 1900s. He covers all of the following: the worst possible working conditions, poverty and homelessness and a hopelessness that was dominant amongst the working class. Without giving away too much, main character Jurgis faces horrible tragedy after horrible tragedy, and at times it was just too much to read. However, The Jungle is exquisitely written, and if you read my reviews on here, you know I like messed up shit in novel form. Between all of that and all of the insight gained from Sinclair's investigative work turned novel, The Jungle is definitely a great novel in every technical way. I'm not sure I would call it an enjoyable read by any means, though.
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway (1926)
Supposedly Ernest Hemingway's greatest work (according to some), The Sun Also Rises started off just as I had expected and hoped, then I sort of became bored with it. In rough summary, a group of American and British expatriates hang out and drink in France, then decide to basically go on a bender in Spain, hang out, eat and drink a ton, watch bullfights, fish, and generally yuck it up. There is interesting dialogue and some truly great relationship drama that is handled in the most childish of ways. Themes such as sexual freedom, masculinity, travel, culture, and leading a fulfilling and enjoyable life into adulthood are touched on in ways that I could see having been controversial back in the late 1920s. I also appreciate how all of the dialogue and descriptions are so understated. There were a few minor emotional sentiments (put to text quite wonderfully by Hemingway) that hit me in the right way, but other than that, I had difficulty relating to any of these characters. Again, I ended up getting bored because, well, nothing really happens. And, I like meandering stories. Call me jaded or ignorant or below this or whatever, but The Sun Also Rises ended up not being all that it was cracked up to be. Not that I hated it, because I really did enjoy a lot of the character interactions and the simple, yet beautiful language. I guess I just wasn't engrossed with any of the events that took place nor did I care very deeply about any of the characters. I'm sorry, people.
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