Beloved By Many (Beloved)

For someone who went to high school in America and, indeed, took every English class she could fit into her schedule, it is probably quite appalling that I've never read a book by Toni Morrison. Because her writings are set in America's past with a particular focus on the culture and history of African Americans, Morrison's novels have instilled themselves into the US education system and appear on many a reading list.

But while my peers were reading classics like Pride and Prejudice and Great Expectations, I was either immersing myself in trendy contemporary fiction like 1984 or Catch-22 (some things never change), or fulfilling my reading requirement at the last minute by reading a 70-page, double-spaced play like Equus or A Streetcar Named Desire.

Nonetheless, Toni Morrison seemed to follow me around - excerpts from her novels appearing in a few of my university courses and newly published books staring down at me from bookshop shelves. At the age of 76, Morrison is still going strong so I decided I owed it to her, as well as my literary-lazy high school self, to read one of her offerings.

Beloved (1987) is Morrison's fifth, and probably best known, novel. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and made into a movie starring Oprah Winfrey and Thandie Newton, the novel revolves around the life of ex-slave Sethe in 1920s Cincinnati.

Haunted by her past (quite literally), Sethe carves out a lonely life for her and her daughter, Denver. The unexpected arrival of Paul D Garner, another former slave from the 'Sweet Home' plantation, brings about a dark series of events that draws on Sethe's past, present and future.

Morrison's prose is lyrical, yet unforgiving, with the novel depicting the horrors of Sethe's life somewhat beautifully. Unfortunately, the pacing and complexity left me unusually apethetic and unmoved. Likewise, the supernatural aspects of the book initially took my imagination, but eventually left me feeling cold (no pun intended).

Nonetheless, I can appreciate Morrison's vast talent and contribution to American history, and I wouldn't rule out reading another of her works. But choose her over George Orwell or Joseph Heller? Perhaps I'll forever be classically lackadaisical.

The World According to Hollywood (The World According to Garp)

Why are bad books being made into films? I mean, I know most of what is being made in Hollywood is crap, so I suppose it makes sense to make bad books into even worse movies. But all the publicity and hype over The Da Vinci Code, in particular, has been getting to me over the past couple of weeks.

As I know I've mentioned before (Dan Brown's success is a sore spot for me), I thought very little of this book simply because it could've been so good. All the theory and research were there (because they was stolen from someone else) but the quality of writing and the pathetic attempts at suspense just made it laughable.

I originally wanted to see the film because I thought the cast (Audrey Tatou in particular) could pull it off providing they had a good screenplay. But both critics and friends have agreed that the script is dire and the acting average so Hollywood is not getting my £7.50 this time around.

John Irving's The World According to Garp is an example of Hollywood picking up on a genius book and turning it into a film that may not be critically acclaimed (it has a 6.9 on IMDb) but turned out to be a good way for many of Hollywood's current respected actors to showcase their early talent (Glenn Close, John Lithgow). Too bad it happened almost 25 years ago.

Onto the book...

I had never read John Irving before but I suspect this was the place to start. The World According to Garp is his most famous book so I was expecting something very mainstream and conventional. Instead I was rewarded with a novel I could really only compare to Catch-22 in terms of its sense of adventure and recklessness.

But that is not to say the novel is not accessible. In fact, I think John Irving could be the answer to helping frustrated or reluctant readers enjoy literature.

The mock-biography chronicles the life and times of writer T.S. Garp and his mother, hesitant feminist Jenny Fields. Garp is an 'everyman' and his life is an 'X-rated soap opera' of unexpected twists that border on the unbelievable but keep their feet firmly planted just when the reader needs it most.

Although written nearly 30 years ago, this book has lost none of its original power or social comment. Like Joseph Heller, I doubt John Irving will be quickly forgotten. That is one thing that Dan Brown will never achieve.