The Hobbled Runner just sent me a link to an article he saw about rereading. We have discussed this before - this article has some interesting commentary on this phenomenon. The premise here is that some books don't hold up the same - books that, as children or younger adults, we held in fond memory, don't provide the same experience upon a reread, and leave us disappointed.
Yet, she points out some titles that have done exactly the opposite. I have just had such an experience. I just finished rereading Catcher in the Rye. I remember enjoying it as a late teen/early 20-something, when I first read it. It was, however, a far more powerful experience as a 42-year old with totally different life experience. Painful. Touching. And, frustrating - in that I wish I could shake some of the adults in Holden's life. Don't they see what's going on with this kid? Believe me - I didn't see it this way at all as a teenager.
To quote the article, who in turn is quoting Michael Chabon after he reread Anna Karenina, "...it turned out to be an entirely different book than the one he remembered reading as an undergraduate."
I'm not sure we want to revisit this discussion, but it was an interesting essay for me to read after just rereading a compelling title. Then again, I'm on the record as being an avid re-reader!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Along similar lines, I looked to see peoples' reviews on Goodreads for one of my favorite books, War for the Oaks (which JNJ is reading at the moment).
I noticed that many people (who really liked the book) made the same comment that I did--that they liked to pick it up and re-read it from time to time. Interesting.
Your comments, S, make me want to re-read Catcher in the Rye (I typed "wry" at first . . . freudian slip?) I'm curious to see how it would "read" to me now.
Thanks to both of you for providing the link to a thought-provoking article! Most of my re-reading has been YA fiction, so there's a big, obvious gap between the me that read those books then and the me now.
I'd be interested in re-reading Catcher in the Rye, too; another possibility is Tender is the Night (loved, loved, loved it in high school). But I do worry about "losing" an old favorite by having an inferior experience the second time through.
I did re-read To Kill A Mockingbird as an adult and was pleasantly surprised at different subtleties that you pick up on a second time through, twenty years later!
There are YA books I reread and I don't lose any of my cherished love for them. And let's face it, we all went to good highschools, were good readers and probably read many "adult" books as teens. I wonder if it's the more adult stories that change over time, as we've had many more adult experiences by the time we reread something--that different perspective may be all it takes to change our memory of it.
Post a Comment