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Scanning the bookshelf
The paired-readings column suggested by San Diego English teacher Valerie
Stevenson proved popular, and other readers have sent us their selections.
One came from another English teacher, Tom Staninger:
"My class reads (Judith Guest's) 'Ordinary People' and 'The Catcher in the
Rye' as a paired reading for their summer assignment," he writes, "and
during the year they read 'Heart of Darkness' and 'Things Fall Apart'
back-to-back. Adding 'The Poisonwood Bible' to the latter two is an obvious
choice."
From other readers:
Patricia Campbell - "A Passage to India" with Ann Patchett's "Bel Canto" and
"The Reivers" with "All the Pretty Horses."
"For someone with a lot of time," she adds, "here's the best: 'War and
Peace' and (Vickram Seth's) 'A Suitable Boy.' The latter is a marvelous work
that stands in the same relation to modern India as 'War and Peace' does to
19th-century Russia."
She then hooks up "The Red Badge of Courage," "A Farewell to Arms" and "Cold
Mountain."
Jeanie Camp - "As a former American expatriate who has lived in England,
Nigeria and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I recommend the triplet 'Staying
On' (Paul Scott's sequel to his 'Raj Quartet'), 'Eight Months on Ghaazah
Street' (Hilary Mantel) and 'A Good Man in Africa' (William Boyd). All three
books are outstandingly written, and all three captured the bittersweet
expatriate experience for me."
Louise Snider - "Our club read 'The Known World' by Edward P. Jones and then
moved up a book we had planned for a later discussion, 'The March' by E.L.
Doctorow. The continuity of the pre-Civil-War and Civil-War settings made
for an enriched discussion."
Nancy Foley - "A Passage to India" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake," "The
Grapes of Wrath" and Victor Villasenor's "Rain of Gold," and Victor
Frankel's "Man's Search for Meaning" and Gregory David Roberts' "Shantaram."
("The author quotes Victor Frankel during both of his prison terms," Foley
notes.)
Lynn McConnell - Herman Hesse's "Demian" and "The Catcher in the Rye" and
"Gone With the Wind" and "Raintree County" (good to see Ross Lockridge's
novel get a mention). "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Bury My Heart at
Wounded Knee" (the latter's nonfiction, but we'll let that go) and "Of Human
Bondage" and "An American Tragedy," "Vanity Fair" and "House of Mirth,"
Marguerite Duras' "The Lover" and "Lolita."
High school teachers will, of course, have the good sense to give that last
pairing a pass, however reluctantly. The better part of valor, and all that.
- Arthur Salm
Arthur Salm is the Books editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune.
