This summer I took it upon myself to read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. I had started it a few summers previous when my sister read it for college but unfortunately got bored rather quickly. This summer I was determined to read the entire book, fortunately I found the book much more interesting this time around. Along with Anna Karenina I obviously read Pride and Prejudice, which I had originally read in grade six and many times since [I went through a phase where I only read classical novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Jane Eyre, The Count of Monte Cristo and a few others]. I also read the sequel to Meg Cabot’s [the author of the Princess Diaries series, of which I have also read] All American Girl. I read of few snippets from Hunter S. Thompson’s Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time. Which I found interesting but many of the pieces were only excerpts so without the entire story and not having lived in that era, therefore not knowing the popular culture of the times, I found some of the stories hard to follow. I wanted to read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but I did not get the chance. The other book I read for school was Old School by Tobias Wolff. I found Old School interesting because of how the story was told, it was more of a monologue. The narrator reports what is going on around him from his point of view and how he sees things, omitting extraneous details that as the observer, the narrator already knows, for example the reader never learns the name of the narrator or what he looks like. I also liked how the narrator goes through many different phases, when he reads Ayn Rand's Fountainhead, he becomes obsessed with trying to imitate the ridiculously heroic characters in her novel. When Ernest Hemingway is scheduled to visit the narrator endlessly copies his stories attempting to create one of his own, driving him to cheat, although unintentionally, in an attempt to win an audience. As a Hemingway fan, I really liked the connections to Hemingway in Old School also.
I really enjoyed Anna Karenina. Although at first glance the book seems to be about a whole lot of nothing. Although it turned out to be 700 pages of very well written nothing, it still managed to keep my attention. Because the "nothing" was actually a depiction of everyday life, just like a life I could have, although I am not Russian nor am I married and worried about my husband taking my child, but it is possible. I wanted to continue reading and see what would happen between Anna and Alexey Alexandrovitch, if Anna would keep her son or run away with Vronsky. By the end I had begun to despise Anna, her life was unfortunate and yes, she was shunned by her society but instead of trying to be happy with Vronsky and her daughter, she chose to blame Vronksy and succumb to jealousy and mistrust. Without regard to the effect her death would have on Vronsky or their child, she throws herself on to the train tracks to end her unhappiness and get revenge upon Vronksy. I had particular respect for Oblonsky’s wife, Dolly, her husband had cheated on her and is extremely frivolous with her money, yet Dolly chooses to forgive him. Although it may appear that Dolly just gave in to keep her house and her respect, I think that showed more strength in staying with him than if she had left him because she chose to make the best of it by devoting herself to their children and helping her sister Kitty. Also when Anna becomes an outcast, Dolly was one of the only women who still receives her and visits her. My favorite characters in the novel were Konstantin Levin and his wife, Kitty. Once they are married, they move out to the country away from society and attempt to pursue the simple pleasures of life, farming and housekeeping in this circumstance, and they both seem extremely happy just to be with each other.
