Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

John Steinbeck’s ill-named The Red Pony. I can only assume he picked that title because he realized that the more accurate The Dead Horses might put people off. Yes, multiple dead horses! First the red pony catches the strangles and chokes to death on its own mucus, and then the ranch hand bashes a mare to death in order to extract her baby by Caesarean section.

Yeah. I think that tells you everything you need to know about this book.

What I’m Reading Now

Louisa May Alcott’s Jo’s Boys. There’s a whole chapter in this book about “how to behave around an author,” presumably because Alcott had no other platform on which to castigate her over-invested fans. Jo has become a famous author, and is beset on all sides by rapacious reporters and mooncalf fans. One girl flings herself into Jo’s arms, crying, “Darling, love me!” Oh, fans. Behaving badly since 1886!

I’ve also started Garth Nix’s A Confusion of Princes, which is a little too action-adventure for my taste. There are only so many times the hero can escape assassination before it starts to get repetitive. But perhaps soon he’ll start doing something else.

I haven’t gotten much farther in The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp, because I forgot to take it along when I visited my parents over the weekend. Tara and her sister Lucy have arrived in London! Tara has been swept off on a shopping trip by a woman named Clover.

Also, I feel that this book was not very well copy-edited, because I keep stumbling over small continuity errors.

What I Plan to Read Next

Charles Finch’s The Last Enchantments.

Comments

[littlerhymes]

Ah, The Red Pony! I read that as a child with a fondness for horse books (the kind with gymkhanas and jolly girls called Jill) and was traumatised for days. Sweet memories!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

The Red Pony is one of the books Matilda reads in Matilda. Matilda is clearly made of sterner stuff than I was as a child (or am now!), because she describes the book as "lovely."

Meanwhile I am going "But buzzards are eating the horsy! And now Jodie is killing the buzzard! O.O O.O O.O" Why does Jodie wander around killing animals so much??

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I was about to say, "You forgot Jodie gorily beating the buzzard to death, but never mind."

That is seriously one of the grossest books I have ever read. That includes my paramedic textbook that has color photos of industrial accidents.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

He also spends the entire last story joyfully contemplating bashing a bunch of fat, juicy mice to death. He's particularly excited about the juiciness. Ultimately he doesn't get around to it, but WTF, why is the protagonist of this tale so gleefully cruel to animals? It's so off-putting.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I think I traumatically repressed that part. I only wish I traumatically repressed the entire book, which was given to me when I was about nine, because I loved horses.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

A number of people have commented that they got this book as a present during their horse-mad years. I hope the present-givers just glanced at the title ("A pony book! It's perfect!") and didn't read the back cover or anything.

[motetus.livejournal.com]

Oh god, The Red Pony. Some well-meaning relative gave me that book while I was going through my horse-mad phase as a child. It was quite the horrifying experience!

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

Presumably they saw the word "Pony" and didn't think to actually flip through the book or anything?

Because this is a terrible book for a horse-mad girl. Terrible.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I laughed at your description of The Red Pony, which i haven't read, but have heard of. Yeah, I think that's all I need to know, too. And I laughed reading your update on A Confusion of Princes, too, thinking of possible alternatives for the hero--like maybe succumbing to the attempts! No, but seriously, it's a bad sign if you're getting bored by the action.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

My impression of Steinbeck's work in the thirties - both The Red Pony and The Grapes of Wrath - is that someone needed to tell him, "Seriously, man, get over yourself. There's more to life than misery, and you're not that profound."

I'm really not the target audience for action-adventure stories (at least, unless they have something else going on), so A Confusion of Princes might work better for someone else.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The action of A Confusion of Princes continues more-or-less in that vein. What I find interesting about it is not the surface but the incredibly dark background: the empire the hero is fighting to protect is based on the use of brainwashed slaves, whom the hero uses without a second thought, and staggering contempt for all but a tiny elite. It probably would have worked better pitched a little older, so that could have been explored more.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I'll give it a few more chapters to see how it goes. The dystopian background has already been sketched in, but it's hard to explore it much what with assassination attempts flying in from all sides.

[silverusagi]

I can only assume he picked that title because he realized that the more accurate The Dead Horses might put people off.

THERE'S a book I won't be reading, lol.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

This whole post was a sort of public service announcement to save people from this book.