Well today I'm beginning a nice long Thanksgiving break which I'm hoping will afford me some additional reading time. I'm six chapters into "Tom Sawyer" and loving every page. It is a thoroughly light hearted and enjoyable tale.
Something I should confess since this is a blog about reading is that I am NOT a fast reader by any stretch. I've never been able to read very fast without feeling as if I'm missing some important detail or bit of information. I read every word at the speed as if were being spoken and no faster. I'll often go back and re-read a paragraph if I feel I read it with a wrong or misplaced emphasis or if I feel I missed something the author was trying to convey. I want to get every last bit of the author's narative and intent. As a result, I feel my comprehension is pretty good. But it will take me awhile to get through a book, especially a long one or one in which the language requires more than casual attention.
Honestly, with this particular book, a slow read seems appropriate. From the little I've read so far, Mark Twain's writing style is definitely one to be savored. Sipped, not guzzled if you will. Every word and every phrase seem to contribute significantly to the scene and mood he's building for the reader. One point of style in particular that I've enjoyed is his habit, every so often, to insert a bit of third person social commentary while describing a scene in the story (his observations on church chiors, for example). These seem to be born of his actual views on various things and provide the reader with hints as to his true personality and world views. They're also downright hillarious!
So far, there does not seem to be an over-arching plot to the book. At least through chapter six, it's been more of a narative of the daily experiences of a young (he doesn't give an exact age), strong willed boy growing up in a small town in the early part of the nineteenth century. I was surprised to find that the famous "fence whitewashing" incident where Tom convinces his friends to finish whitewashing a fence for him, occurs quite early in the book in Ch. 2. It is also where you will find one of the many, many pearls of wisdom penned by the great Mark Twain:
"He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it - namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do." -Mark Twain
So far, it's easy to see why this book is a classic. It is a window into the past, describing a culture and way of life that is long since faded into history. Sad as that is to me, as the people of St. Petersburg seem to be strong, self reliant, moral and proud. Traits that are becoming conspicously more absent in todays environment where dependence on big government, and corporate greed seem to rule the day.
