The Big Rock Candy Mountain - Wallace Stegner

Once again, Stegner does not disappoint. I was skeptical about how much I would like this book at first. Following popularity and general acclaim as a measure, I had already read Stegner's best two books, Angle of Repose and Crossing to Safety, both of which I highly recommend to anyone. After those two books, I read The Spectator Bird, which was very good, but not as good--in my opinion--as the first two. So, when I picked up The Big Rock Candy Mountain, I wondered where I would place it among Stegner's works.

Usually, when I pick up a Stegner novel, it takes a good hundred pages or so of reading before I really get "into" the book--with, perhaps, the exception of Crossing to Safety. I think the reason for this in my case is that Stegner's novels rarely rely on a "page-turner plot" to pull us in and drive the story and meaning of the book. Rather, Stegner's characters become real so that every time I open the book, I feel like I'm coming back to old friends who I care about and want to experience life with.

In the end, that's exactly what Stegner writes--experiences into other people's lives.

He writes people who live ordinary lives that somehow become extraordinary and profound as we reflect on them. I found this novel to be comparable to Angle of Repose in a lot of ways. It focuses on a small family being swept around the American west by the changing fortunes and endeavors of the husband--though admittedly, the husbands are very different in the two books. The focus of the novel seemed different to me, however, and Angle of Repose seems like an evolution from The Big Rock Candy Mountain. This novel focuses on the marriage of Bo and Elsa Mason, but more than that it focuses on parenthood, as the perspectives shift to the children as they grow and understand their parents. In Angle of Repose, Stegner focused more on the marriage in the story, but he also went to another level of depth, writing the story from the perspective of the modern historian, Lyman Ward, whose wife had left him. In that book, Stegner added an extra level of depth that didn't exist in its predecessor. Lyman Ward gives us a catalyst of application and relatability as we see the lives of his grandparents through his eyes.

Despite my rambling about Angle of Repose, I heartily recommend The Big Rock Candy Mountain. I believe much understanding and applicability to our lives can be gleaned from its pages.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

If popularity is a good measure of a book's siginificance--and according to Edgar Allen Poe it is--I won't make a lot of people happy by saying I was not impressed by this book. In fact, I felt like a kid in a high-chair watching the literary spoon of wisdom airplaning towards my mouth-- unavoidable and guided by the hand of Paulo Coelho. I don't generally have anything against didactic literature; I thoroughly enjoy C.S. Lewis' more didactic narratives, such as "The Pilgrim's Regress" or "The Great Divorce." Yet in this book, I felt like the didacticism had dropped a level or two in both complexity and defensibility.

My first issue with Coelho's drops of wisdom may be my own fault. Perhaps since I had never read any other book by this author, I had a difficult time seeing him as figure from whom I wanted to drink up treasures of wisdom. Yet I think this issue has its root in my second issue: that Coelho presents his wisdom as a mystical appeal to emotion, apparently without feeling a need to present it with a defence or rationalized argument. Again, this may reveal more about my personal preferences for didactic literature, but as I read this book, I quickly tired of shallow narrative relying on repeated phrases and situations to convey wisdom.

I won't try to present C.S. Lewis as a master of didactic narratives, but one prominent aspect of Lewis' narratives that sets him above Coelho--in my mind at least--is that Lewis often presents didactic allegories as apologies of his point of view (to clarify, I'm using the word apology in the sense of a rational defense). "The Pilgrim's Regress," for example (written as a parody of "The Pilgrim's Progress"), follows a similar storyline and protagonist goal as "The Alchemist," but the reader does not need to rely on the authority of Lewis as a teacher of wisdom, as I feel the reader must do--to an extent--in "The Alchemist." Rather, Lewis is careful to lay out arguments for each way of life, and subsequently, the reason why the pilgrim continues to search. The reason to continue is never simply the result of an omen or the advice of a sage.


Perhaps, when it comes down to it, I'm skeptical of an "inspirational" novel that fails to explain or qualify as it inspires. It may be too easy to take the extreme or incautious view of the search for your Personal Legend from this book.

My wife mentioned that this story reminds her of the happy, optimistic version of "Candide" (which ironically is also called "Optimism"), and I agree. This comparison raises a question of why such similar and still completely opposite stories have been so popular at different times? Where this book praises the search for the Personal Legend and the rewards of seeking more in life, Candide almost mocks the idea of the Personal Legend. What is it about human nature that we are still reading "Candide" after 250 years, even while a book like "The Alchemist" also gains wide popularity?

Genre: Inspirational