Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
Poetry
In 1855, outward expressions of joy and wonder did not fit into American cultural norms, but Walt Whitman decided to go against the grain and write a book of poetry about those topics. His master work, Leaves of Grass, presents as a love letter to the indomitable human spirit and the beauty of nature and human life. In it, he spends quite a bit of time making lists. These lists comprise of various items and people that Whitman finds fantastic, and they go on for lines upon lines of poetry. I would recommend this book to anyone with an open mind. Whitman’s writing is at times over the top and intensely optimistic to a point where it becomes slightly less meaningful. At the same time, his work shows how literature can capture such beautiful and vivid images and ideas from our living world, and offers readers an opportunity to find more of the good in their surroundings and in the world as a whole. Themes in Leaves of Grass included love in many forms, such as love for Walt Whitman himself, love for the world, and love for others, as well as patriotism, which came through the lens of Whitman as a man who loved America and held deep respect for our military and politicians. On the one hand, not much content or plot is covered in the book at all, and there is seemingly no end goal. On the other hand, Whitman presents stunning description and imagery and uses his stanzas to illustrate existence beautifully. It was an amazing example of how literature almost 200 years old can be similar to modern work and sentiment.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Ernest Hemingway
Historical Fiction
In a complex and passionate fight against fascism, Robert Jordan, the protagonist of the book, works as a dynamiter for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War. He was an American who lived in Spain before the war, and who despised Francisco Franco’s fascist forces so deeply that he dropped everything to work against them. Golz, a Soviet general, ordered Jordan to destroy a bridge with dynamite in order to prevent the opposition from crossing it during an upcoming offensive attack. He met a band of guerilla fighters who decided to help him in his work, especially Anselmo who, in the end, dies for the cause. From love to drama to betrayal, the guerilla band runs into many difficulties but ultimately sticks together. The core of this story is heroism, and what Jordan does that makes him a hero but also makes him imperfect. Hemingway follow his intense desire to follow direction and be the perfect soldier, and it becomes frustrating as he takes action after action that endangers himself and the people around him that does not need to be, such as making rash decisions about how to blow up the bridge after a rebellious ex-leader of the band discards the dynamite by throwing it all in a gorge. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in heroism and in war stories that are not all violent. It is overall a fantastic piece of literature that encompasses emotion, plot, and layered ideas of war.
Another Day in the Frontal Lobe
Katrina Firlik
Memoir
Neurosurgery is a lucrative and dramatically demanding medical specialty, and Katrina Firlik exposes her path and story to becoming a neurosurgeon in her book, Another Day in the Frontal Lobe. She uses case studies as snapshots to use to discuss her everyday thoughts and actions, starting off the book with a jarring construction accident case in which a man has a 3-inch nail in his skull, but does not feel any pain. With the background she shares about her childhood, the reader knows that she grew up with no fear of gore and a role model surgeon father. While sharing her fascination by the complex cases coming to her hands every day, she also includes her fears, her discouragement, and the difficult reality of working with life and death multiple times a day. The core of her message is balance. In her career’s case, this is the balance between careful, intelligent, precise work and mechanical, forceful, aggressive work. At times, her job was to simply hit or saw something with great force, and at other times, it was to analyze test results and brain imaging scans to pinpoint a specific problem for a patient with brain trauma. She makes the point that balance is similarly crucial for everyone in life, almost in the same way. I think that anyone would benefit from her message that no matter what walk of life or career, it is important to execute and also to be thoughtful.
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