​The End of Eddy by Édouard Louis is a novel about a boy who lives in rural France, comes from a poor family, and tries to disregard the fact that he’s gay. The first half of the novel describes Eddy’s home life, his drunken and unemployed father (who once worked at a factory), his hard-love type mother, his large and trigger-hair older brother, and two boys that bully him (in addition to other family). He is seen in his village as the outcast, the effeminate boy, and so because of that he is bullied, name called, and beaten by others. The second half of the novel focuses on what happens after he has sex with his cousins in a shed. They get found out by Eddy’s mother, Eddy’s father beats him, and then rumors become more solidified about Eddy’s sexuality after one of his cousins tells their secret. Eddy is horrified and tries to bury it by dating Laura and then Sabrina, but when Sabrina tries to have sex with him, all he can think about is other men. Eventually, Eddy auditions, and then gets into a high school with a theater program, which is far away from his home and village. He thinks he’s evaded the accusations, but in the final moments of the novel, we see that Eddy isn’t seen different and is, “…as gay as ever…”, with Eddy laughing in response.
 
It's a deeply emotional novel that displays Eddy’s internal conflict so well. He recognizes his desires, but tries so hard to tamp them down, which makes it all the sadder to witness. The ending too makes me want to believe that Eddy has become himself, but there is also a sense that the bullying, denial, and hatred will perpetuate. When reading, I felt a particular parallel to another novel, Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima in which violence, masculinity, and sexuality are all blended up together. And I found this observation to encapsulate both novels, “I do not know if the boys from the hallway would have referred to their own behaviors as violent…For a man violence was something natural, self-evident.” Louis is a master at putting the reader into the mind of Eddy, to interpret the same feelings and moments as him, and to feel absolutely devastated by the way the world treats him.
 
Final Rating: 5/5

​Rumble, Young Man, Rumble by Benjamin Cavell is a collection of nine short stories all centered around masculinity, pride, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and desire. These stories are brash at times, with uses of the N-word and the F-slur, which make sense in the context of the characters, but are at times grating and overwhelming. The first story, ‘Balls, Balls, Balls’ is about a man who works at a sporting goods store who competes in a paintball team and thinks himself as an over-the-top macho man. He talks about how large his penis is, about how he is better than everyone else—especially the new guy on his paintball team, and his experiences with violence and sex. Though, what’s particularly revealing about this story, is that the narrator, while not explicitly stated, is unreliable and is even bested by the new guy who used to be in the military. With this story, and many of the other stories in Cavell’s collection, all the men believe themselves to be super masculine and go to great lengths to show that being the case. It however is simply a façade, and deeper down they are all insecure men. In ‘All the Nights of the World’, the speaker’s father talks about these violent tales while the speaker idolizes him. In ‘Killing Time’, a boxer is prepping for a fight against a man he says he can beat, but is intimidated. ‘Evolution’ is about these two friends doing worse and worse things to people in preparation to kill the father of one of their girlfriends. ‘The Art of Possible’ is about the artifice of being a politician. Though, the story I thought was most developed was ‘The Ropes’ about a boxer who nearly died in a fight, so has to pick up the pieces of his life after.
 
These stories are gruesome, sometimes ridiculously violent, and abrasive. I think I did have trouble with some of the stories, for example in ‘The Death of Cool’, the last paragraph is unneeded, while another story features a black man saying the N-word with the hard R (which seems like a very wrong way to write that type of character). It is a collection that I can see how it got published in the early 2000’s, but feels dated with its language now.
 
Final Rating: 3/5

​Persuasion by Jane Austen is a novel about a well-off daughter, Anne, and her desires for a man, Captain Wentworth. The novel kicks off with Anne’s father, Sir Walter Elliot, having lost his first wife and now married to another, spending above his means. They have to sell off one of their pieces of land, Kellynch Hall, to a navy man, Admiral Croft, and his wife. Sir Walter Elliot hates this, and says, “a sailor grows older sooner than any other man…”. Admiral Croft brings with him Anne’s old lover, Captain Wentworth, who believes she betrayed him when she cut off their relationship. This was in part due to Lady Russell’s, Anne’s house-maid, word. Once Anne moves from Kellynch Hall, she meets Captain Wentworth and desires him throughout, but then begins to be courted by her cousin, Mr. Elliot. Captain Wentworth was also trying to marry another woman, Louise, but soon falls out of love with her after his friend courts her. It’s only when Anne’s friend, Mrs. Smith, reveals to her that Mr. Elliot is a conniving person only out for prestige that she cuts it off with him. And throughout, Anne goes to concerts, card parties, and hosts parties of her own. At the end, even though Captain Wentworth is not the type her family or friends want her to marry, they do and everyone, except Mr. Elliot, seems to get around to being fine with it.
 
I enjoyed the wit and acuity Austen deploys with Anne and Captain Wentworth. And while it is a story of its time, I did find the way everyone treated Anne to be transcendent. Lady Russell tells her to marry someone else, her father thinks she’s the lesser of the three daughters, and Elizabeth is simply rude to her. Though, at times, the parties got a little overbearing and I had difficulty with how quick the final chapter wraps things up. I’m also not that interested in stories about well-off families, as their problems seem more or less comparatively small to others. Overall, I thought it to be a fairly enjoyable read.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​Lighthouse Dreams by Elizabeth Genovise is a collection of stories of people in some sort of in-between. The first story is about a passenger after a train crashes, another is about a family who arrives at a lighthouse, another is about a hike between two friends, another is about an art history professor and student who both plan to kill themselves. The stories, as the title suggests, feels surreal at times, meaningful in others but exist to create something more for the characters and the reader. In a few of the stories, dreams are used as vehicles for the character’s unconscious to show their fears and desires. I enjoyed the banter between the art history professor and the student the most since it felt real and tender, both trying to say more, but unable to address what’s truly on their mind.
 
Final Rating: 3.5/5

​As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a novel about the Bundren family in Mississippi traveling to bury their dead mother. It follows the trials and tribulations of the sons, daughter, and father as they each deal with the death in a different way. The story opens with the mother close to death and her oldest son, Cash, preparing the casket in their yard as the daughter, Dewey Dell, stands by the mother’s bed. It’s described that the father, Anse, doesn’t really care for his dying wife, Addie, and only honors her wishes after she is dead. There are two more sons, Jewel who seems to only care for money, and Darl who is described as the only son who truly loved Addie. And finally, Vardaman, is the youngest son who doesn’t know how to interpret Addie’s death, so acts out by scaring off the doctor’s horses. Once dead, the family hitches Addie’s body up in a wagon and begins their journey to a wholly separate county. Along the way, a storm forces them to take a detour, a failed fording across a river causes Cash to break his leg, Darl starts a barn fire, and Dewey Dell searches for an aborticide for her pregnancy. The whole time, they have Addie’s body decomposing in the wagon, which lasts over a week, before they finally bury her. The novel ends with Anse finding another woman, as if to say Anse hadn’t really cared for Addie all along.
 
The novel has a huge cast of characters which Faulkner tackles by placing the reader in the mind of each one expertly. What’s brilliant about As I Lay Dying is that Faulkner is able to craft uniquely distinct voices for each character. For example, Vardaman sounds like a kid, Anse’s language is written in dialect, and the doctor’s thoughts are more formal. I loved how the family interacts with each other, when they use concrete as a cast for Cash’s leg, Dewey Dell’s mission for an aborticide, and Vardaman believing Addie had become a fish. It is no wonder Faulkner is seen to be one of the greatest writers of his time.
 
Final Rating: 4.5/5