Teacher Man

Teacher Man, by Frank McCourt

Author of Angela’s Ashes and ‘Tis, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer finally sets down his memoir of his life as a teacher. I figured this would be a great final book of reading for the summer season to get me back in the groove of teaching. I’ll be pre-student teaching in a high school this fall and I can’t wait even though all of my other classes this semester are going to be the death of me. So much reading! But don’t worry; I’ll keep you posted on my progress.

To steal from the book jacket: “Teacher Man shows McCourt developing his unparalleled ability to tell us a great story as, five days a week, five periods per day, he works to gain the attention and respoect of unruly, hormonally charged or indifferent adolescents. McCourt’s rocky marriage, his failed attempt to get a PhD at Trinity College, Dublin, and his repeated firings due to his propensity to talk back to his superiors ironically led him to New York’s most prestigious school, Stuyvesant High School, where he finally finds a place and a voice.” McCourt’s tale is one constantly changing its scenery and plot. Starting out in Ireland, moving to America, working on a loading dock and finally getting his teaching certificate, Frank has done it all. He tells many stories of crazy lesson plans involving recipes being read to student instrumental music or tales of getting fired for eating a student’s sandwich right in front of the class. It is definitely a story of growth as over time Frank McCourt becomes the man he hoped to be when he started out.

It is an interesting style of narrative. While always extremely entertaining to read, the story jumps around a lot. Readers will start out in Frank’s first classroom but then be taken instantly back to his class through stories he would tell his students about Ireland and the working world. It is fitting, however, because he gets off topic in the beginning just as his students would in hopes that he would forget to teach them anything that day. It worked in his classroom; it works in the novel. After learning about his past, McCourt takes time himself to continue to talk about his failed time in Dublin. It isn’t until the third book, “Part III: Coming Alive in Room 205” that his tale actually becomes devoted to his time in the classroom. It isn’t until now that he has any successful stories to tell until arriving at Stuyvesant High School. It is here he starts to connect with the material and to his students but sadly this is only found in the last quarter of the memoir. Not that it wasn’t enjoyable reading what he had to say about his many failings in the field of education, but with a title like Teacher Man, I was originally hoping for more of a focused storyline to rival other teaching tales like Up the Down Staircase or To Sir With Love.

I would only recommend this book to other educators or future educators or anyone interesting in the education field. I am going to assume that any fans of Angela’s Ashes or ‘Tis would also like this memoir, but I cannot say for sure because I have not read McCourt’s other works. However, with a profound writing style like this, I am definitely interested in reading something of his that actually won a Pulitzer.

“It is what you read when you don't have to that determines what you will be when you can't help it.”

-Oscar Wilde

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J.K. Rowling, read by Jim Dale

I understand this would have been more appropriate towards the beginning of the summer, but readers, that is when I started this audio version! I had hoped to start and finish it before the movie version came out but circumstances beyond my control kept me from it (dad stole some of the cd’s and then I kept driving with people who refused to listen to its goodness). Sure, call me a nerd, but I love Harry Potter.

After defeating some Death-Eaters and proving Lord Voldemort’s return at the Ministry of Magic in The Order of the Pheonix, Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The all-around mood in the wizarding world is caution and terror as Death-Eater attacks are increasing and the Daily Prophet shows more and more disappearances on the front page. On top of everything else, after passing their Ordinary Wizarding Level tests, the terrific three must also take increasingly hard classes on their way to becoming aurors (with some budding romances along the way). Harry has an advantage however when he comes across an old potions textbook with glorious amounts of helpful hints in the margins. The previous owner, the Half-Blood Prince, also included some new spells as well. Hermione of course doesn’t trust the book, but Harry lives by it, especially when the helpful hints gain him points in Potions class and helps save Ron’s life. Things turn dark when Harry finds a spell found in the margins labeled “for enemies” and uses it on Malfoy in a duel. The book holds some questions as to who the true Half-Blood Prince is, but the major thread of questioning and discovery in this novel comes in the form of Harry’s private lessons with Dumbledore this year. Dumbledore has decided to inform Harry what he can of Lord Voldemort’s past through a collection of gathered memories from random family members, witnesses and house elves. Harry must try to piece together what he can about Voldemort’s past and some objects called Horcruxes to attempt at gaining an advantage in a destined battle to the death with He-who-must-not-be-named.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very important installment in the series. There is a lot of important background information on Lord Voldemort (a.k.a. Tom Marvolo Riddle) but also around events that led up to the death of Harry’s parents. This is very crucial and interesting information, but because of this, readers will find less action than previous books until the later chapters. Towards the end there are some amazingly important and breath-taking fights, duels, action sequences, etc, but even with all of the answer giving throughout the entire book, the end still leaves you questioning the future for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Thankfully, the majority of this book’s final actions can be explained in the next audio book I plan on listening to (after I get it back from my dad) which has a good combination of information and action found in previous books. I like where the characters are in this book, even though some readers think there is too much teenage drama. May I remind readers that they are finally 16 and allowed to have crushes and drama? And what does any of it matter when you have the wonderful voices of Jim Dale filling your ears and taking you away to Hogwarts. I can’t wait for him to take me away in the final novel.

Harry Potter. Enough recommendation said. If you haven’t read it already, get on that loser!

“A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.”
- Martin Tupper

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Me Talk Pretty One Day, by David Sedaris

A #1 national bestseller, I was drawn to this book by word of mouth, but was convinced to buy it thanks to the well put-together David Sedaris table found at Barnes & Noble. You know how busy I have been, so it took me a while to get to this book in my very large pile. I’ve had it since December and I feel very accomplished to have it completed.

David Sedaris is a man who grew up in South Carolina before moving around the United States to San Francisco, Chicago and New York before ending up in Paris, France. Me Talk Pretty One Day is his memoir of trying to grow up and find his place as an individual. Dreaming of hitting it big and becoming famous, Sedaris has it rough as a child already recognizing himself as a homosexual at the age of eleven. Sent to speech pathology for a lisp, and suspecting that others like him are also being sent to kick out more than just the lisp, Sedaris searches for a way to become comfortable with himself. It is hard when even his guitar instructor turned him away for singing showtunes, but he eventually made some type of progress, if you can call it that. Constantly moving from city to city, job to job, Sedaris has been a personal assistant for a woman obsessed with catching a lost cockatoo for a reward and has moved the boxes of enough variable people to get a better understanding of the confusing human race. Leading to a life in Paris with his boyfriend Hugh, Sedaris finds some sense of security.

I found this memoir to be enjoyable to read, but I was hoping that it would be more like a novel. Especially in Part One (Sedaris’s portion devoted to living in the United States), the author jumps around between both random topics and time periods. It seemed as if he was jumping to the places that would give him the appearance of a misunderstood artist sitting in a nest of human hair or a troubled young adult with a flair for drug use. I wasn’t hip to the “edge” Sedaris was trying to portray because it just left the tale jagged and rough. I was hoping for more of something like his first chapter in speech class but was left disappointed until Part Deux. Part Deux (you guessed it, Sedaris’s portion devoted to living in France) is a much more enjoyable, less edgy storyline that flows much better than the jumpy Part One. Finally returning to anything relating to his title (Me Talk Pretty One Day) since the first chapter, Sedaris talks about his adventures in France learning the language and trying to communicate and exist in a foreign country. He finds himself defending the United States at dinner parties, being the scapegoat for America-hating Europeans, and fascinated by American tourists who speak negatively about him in English without knowing he can understand everything they are saying. This is a much better section of the memoir, so please make sure you plow through Part One to get to it. I was disappointed, though, on the seemingly lack of a general ending. Unless you count the fact that some of his family who could afford the trip came to France to celebrate Christmas as an ending, it is hard to find when the last chapter is really devoted to Sedaris’s father’s quirk of buying and hiding fruit past its expiration date.

I found this book enjoyable and it was nice to have to pass the time. I have said that Part Deux was exponentially better than Part One for storyline and chronological factors, but let me continue to say that I would only read this for bare entertainment. I can only see reading this to pass the time. It did and I had fun, but I cannot see reading this for any higher purpose because it seems that by the last page of this novel, the author is still searching for any shred of purpose and therefore has nothing to offer the reader besides his version of daydreams he has while staying awake after switching to caffinated tea instead of drugs. It’s fun as long as you just stay on the surface, as the author seems to do. Success for its wit, comedy and point of view, I can understand the limited crowd it has drawn while still making the work a national bestseller.

“The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it.”

-James Bryce

The Life of Cola di Rienzo

The Life of Cola di Rienzo, translated by John Wright
Class: History 110- Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation Europe

A bronze statue of a hooded man stands reaching his hands towards the air. This real life statue of Cola di Rienzo is located near the Campidoglio in Rome where he was killed. A skilled politician, the rise to the top ended with a sudden fall.

The son of an innkeeper and washerwoman, Cola di Rienzo was learned in Latin and the classical texts. He was able to read inscriptions around his hometown of Rome that others could not. In Cola’s Rome, nobles were corrupt and took advantage of the people, unlike the classical Rome that Cola studied. When Rienzo’s brother was murdered, Rienzo decided it was his duty to bring back the former glory of Rome. Elected by the people, Cola di Rienzo took up the old title of Tribune to govern over Rome and its inhabitants. Strict on the actions of the nobles, Rienzo was fast to make enemies. Even the Pope who first gave him favor later turned against him. Exiled from Rome, Rienzo lived with the Holy Roman Emperor in Prague, pretending to be a distant relative instead of the son of an innkeeper. Rienzo was able to win back favor after seven years and was welcomed back by being given the title of knight. However, with most political stories, success is short. A new agricultural tax is unpopular and the nobles are quick to turn the people against Cola di Rienzo. One failed escape attempt later, the nobles at the Campidoglio stab Rienzo to death where his statue now stands.

A pivotal figure in political history, Cola di Rienzo brought back the tradition of rule by election from the people instead of the popular monarchy. A true tale of power through ascension instead of descending rule, Cola is not the only fascinating character. I’m going to go out on a limb and call the narrator one fascinating dude. A notary, like Cola di Rienzo at the beginning of the tale, this author is also very well learned, taking breaks from the story to insert his own opinion as well as offer extra information by referencing classical texts such as the Bible or Aristotle. Aside from the knowledge of these characters, there are also some pretty cool battles. Feuding Roman families (also fighting for control of the papacy) have been fighting for centuries and are now becoming increasingly violent against each other, the lower classes, and of course Rienzo. There are many battles and riots with many deaths worth hearing about. Interesting, though, is that the narration is pretty dry except for descriptions of Cola’s clothes in two scenes, one when he becomes Tribune and another when he becomes Knight. I guess the physical description is enough to show that this is no longer the son of low birth but instead someone who claims rule for himself and claims false relations to an emperor.

A classic tale of rising and falling out of political favor is an interesting topic seeing that it happens almost every time we turn on the news. Its interesting to see that this Renaissance man had a similar story centuries early. The only difference today is that the nobles don’t kidnap a disliked politician to the Capitol building and stab him to death. They know better. The reading experience was fine if totally necessary, but I will let you know that I fell asleep twice; so beware.

I chose this quote because it was reading that spurred the lives of both of these men into action:
“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
- Frederick Douglass