One of the first forms of imaginative play
we develop is simply looking into the sky and imagine what mysteries take
place in the clouds. Whether a cloud looks like a dinosaur, bunny,
or like giants bowling in the sky during the thunder storms, it is
all part of using our childhood imagination. Authors use their
imaginations in many ways and we are blessed with the creative results of the
following books:
Cloud Atlas (M) is a movie that
everyone seems to be talking about. I have not seen it so I am not
going to judge it, yet. The book by
David Mitchell is amazing. It
won the British Book Award for Literary Fiction, the Richard and Judy
Book of the Year Award in 2004 and was shortlisted for the Booker
Prize, The Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Awards and many
others. The story takes place in six different but related plots.
It brings the reader from the remote South Pacific in the nineteenth
century to a distant post-apocalyptic future. It is a bit dizzying
to try to explain but what I got from it was that the world (and in
this case) time is a very small place and all things are related. Is
it all a matter of fate? What do you think, dear Reader?
Cloudsplitter (M) by
Russell Banks
is a 1998 PEN/Faulkner and Pulitzer Prize finalist. The novel is a
loosely based historical novel about the abolitionist John Brown. I
must admit that I knew very little about this man, only the line;
“Old John Brown is laying in his grave” or something like that.
Brown is the “hero” of the song “
Battle Hymn of the
Republic”. The novel is told from the point of view of John's
son, Owen. Owen tells the tale of his family in the years before the
American Civil War. In doing so he also presents the social and
political landscape of the time. John Brown believed he had direct
orders from God. With a band of men, he conducted a terrorist attack
on Harper’s Ferry, Virginia in 1859 which helped spark the Civil
War. Banks spent five years researching this topic and it resulted in
a wonderful novel.
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud (M) by Ben Sherwood is a
gentle read about the relationship between two brothers.
Admittedly, this is not the usual type of novel that I would usually read,
but I enjoyed the earnestness of Charlie. Charlie and his brother,
Sam were in a car accident and only Charlie survived. There is much
to say about survivor guilt and how various people handle it. The
love between Charlie and Sam is very touching. Sam is guiding
Charlie from the afterlife. It brings up the interesting question of
would you allow a brief moment in time to haunt you forever? Or
would you allow the ghost of that memory to bring spirit back into
your life.
So let your
imagination drift away through the storm clouds or candy cotton
fluffy ones. Remember clouds can help your mind float to all sorts
of interesting ideas. Who knows maybe it will result in a novel. Can
you imagine yourself on the bestsellers list?
No comments:
Post a Comment