Rereading The Stranger
I'm rereading the short novel after a dear friend told me that she heard a professor call Camus an Arab. I remember being really saddened by it as a teen, and so I'm tickled by my current reaction to it (intrigue). Are there any books you once loved/hated that you're now rereading, and what do you think of them?
Here's a list of books I once loved that I'd be curious to re-read:
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
The Red Badge of Courage & Maggie: Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Woman at Point Zero, Nawal el-Saadawi (already know I'd hate this one now)
The Choker and the Bracelet, Yehia Taher Abdallah
Here's a list of books I once loved that I'd be curious to re-read:
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Metamorphosis, Kafka
The Red Badge of Courage & Maggie: Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
Nervous Conditions, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Woman at Point Zero, Nawal el-Saadawi (already know I'd hate this one now)
The Choker and the Bracelet, Yehia Taher Abdallah
posted by rockslinga at 9:29 AM
2 Comments:
I read Woman at Point Zero recently and was impressed by it (although it sounded like an artifact of its time). Bastard Out of Carolina is still incredibly powerful for me, even after seeing the not-great movie... I re-read Charlotte Bronte's Villette about once a year -- it's like revisiting an old friend and discussing something new. There was a recent debate in the Guardian about the purpose and value of re-reading -- what do you think it is?
I have yet to read Vilette, though I keep hearing the same praise for it.
I think the value of rereading lies in the very thing you mention: a revisit to the old self, as well as a reevaluation of that self's connection to the text. I also believe that when revisiting a book you bring to it all the experience of the books you've read since. It's a bit like meeting with an old lover...
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