Why does the American dream sometimes seem so unattainable in literature? From whence does this cynicism come?

In The Big Sleep, we read: "You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell. Me, I was part of the nastiness now."

Read more quotes from the novel, or read the review. Have you read this book? What did you think? How would you compare it to the movie (1946 and 1978)? Would you recommend the movie or the books to others?

Cover Art © Penguin.

We've had rainy nights--perfect for curling up in a blanket with a good book. Those nights, I can see the flash of lightning off in the distance or up close; it almost feels like I can touch it. The rain is so thick in the air as the rain splats against the window pains--the moisture seems to engulf me. I can't help but think of all the poets and writers who have been enchanted and inspired by the rain's song:

• "Proud music of the storm... Personified dim shapes--you hidden orchestras, / You serenades of phantoms with instruments alert, / Blending with Nature's rhythmus all the tongues of nations" - Walt Whitman, Proud Music of the Storm
  
  
• "I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain, / Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea, / Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed" - Walt Whitman, The Voice of the Rain
  
  
• "[T]he rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spiderwebby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild" - Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  
  
• "Darkness had come, and it was still raining. He could hear the rain dashing against the window-panes, and could see it falling through the dull yellow rim of light cast by the lighted street lamp." - Kate Chopin, Her Letters
  
  

Hopefully, if a storm finds you, you're curled up by the fire with a good book! Into every life, rain will fall, but books are here to offer solace.

I guess it's fair to say that Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite books. I've read (and LOVED) so many great classics, but this book still makes me pause to think when the characters and/or plot crosses my mind. And, I often think about that famous image--of crawling into another person's skin and walking and walking around. For me, it's the eye altering. That change of perspective is what we all desperately need some days!

I want to see. I want to understand--not only myself, but others as well. And, literature helps me to do that. I'm immersed in the plots and stories of other people, places and experiences--all drawn from that enduring universality we all want to understand. Literature (books, poems, stories & all) gives me voices--they call, laugh, cry & scream out at me in words. And, some books stay with us beyond the first or second reading; they stay with us, and make us rethink our own actions/reactions. How well do we ever really try to understand? How does literature help you to see (or learn or feel or open your mind and heart)?

Harper Lee writes: "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do." Experience the quotes, from To Kill a Mockingbird. Also, take a look at questions, a review, and related books.

What do you think about the novel? When you first read it, what struck you about the book? Has it stayed with you? Have you read it more than once?

Cover Art © HarperCollins.

A Swedish author--who claims that The Catcher in the Rye is "just a book"--is now being dragged into court for creating what J.D. Salinger claims is an unauthorized sequel. According to Publishers Weekly, the court case may force the famous author to take the stand. But, even if Salinger does manage to remain in the shadows (represented as he is by lawyers, agents, etc), this case offers us an intriguing twist in the controversial history of The Catcher in the Rye.

The man who has created all the ruckus is Fredrik Colting (using the pseudonym John David California), and he's quoted in the PW article: “I wanted to explore what happens to characters. When a book is finished, do the characters cease to exist, or do they live on somehow?”

That's what a lot of us like to imagine. We like to think about what might have been--if J.D. Salinger had written a sequel, if the book hadn't ended as it did. But, for some of those questions, we can leave it to our own imagination (or wait until some far-future day when the "lost" works of J.D. Salinger will surface). I haven't read Colting's work, but I can't imagine it will compare very favorably with The Catcher in the Rye. But, there's the thing--we can't really speak to the quality of the book, nor make comparisons. We just don't know, and we may not know for a long, long time.

So, what do you think? Should the Swedish author be allowed to publish the book? Is the claim of "parody" an acceptable defense? Does it detract from the original? Would a story of this sort help you to imagine the main characters in a different/better light (or is it detestable)?