Centaur

Rating:
Summary: translation please?
Review: a fascinating technique employed by updike where he combines two diiferent worlds to deliver a poignant story

Rating:
Summary: Near masterpiece?
Review: As usual, Updike has no trouble absorbing the reader into his nostalgic and pensive, fantasy Pennsylvania world. Here, the author's glowing nostalgia mixes easily with sparkling snow of the story. Interestingly, the author draws a parallel to the mythic Centaur without straining the plot or breaking the rythm of story telling. However, the implications are not quite profound.

Rating:
Summary: Lovely stuff
Review: I thought that this was a beautifully-written novel, a delight to read. It's the story of a few days in the lives of the teacher George Caldwell and his teenage son, Peter.

Caldwell is struggling with middle-age burn-out, and Peter is at the age when his love for his father is mixed with feelings of rebellion (and embarrassment at his father's increasing eccentricities). Updike concentrates on the feelings of both George and Peter, but as the story unfolds, Peter's view of the world comes to dominate the narrative, and I felt that I was really seeing things through the eyes of a teenager and sharing his feelings.

That Updike could pull this off is a measure of how good a writer he is when at his best: in particular, his eye for detail and the everyday nuances of daily life are excellent.

I'm not that versed in Greek mythology, and the parts of the novel devoted to this are relatively short, so it shouldn't deter prospective readers. I suppose that quite how the mythological parts relate to the characters is up to each reader to decide - rather than put foward my impression, I'll refrain. Each to his/her own opinion!

Rating:
Summary: Keep mythology for the Greeks
Review: I'm a big fan of Updike--his Rabbit novels, especially--but I' still convinced that this is his best book.

The story concerns three days in the lives of George and Peter Caldwell, two residents of fictional Olinger, Pennsylvania. George is a high school science teacher, an endlessly compassionate man who is cursed with dangerously low self-esteem. Peter is his son, a developing artist who simultaneously loves and is exasperated with his father.

Interwoven with their story is the story of Chiron, "the noblest Centaur." Chiron's existence is one of suffering, due to a fatal wound he recieved at the hands of Hercules. Because of this affliction, he willingly gives up his life to save Prometheus, who is being punished by Zeus for the theft of fire. Throughout the course of the novel, it becomes apparent that George Caldwell is Chiron, a hero who suffers that those around him might live, and that Peter is Prometheus, an impetuous youth who dares to touch the face of God.

All of these elements combine wonderfully to create one of Updike's best, most compassionate, most complex, and most personal works. It's got all the humanity and spiritual yearning of ROGER'S VERSION or the Rabbit novels, but it's also got something those books don't: hope.

Rating:
Summary: translation please?
Review: I'm a hopeless monoglot and can't read ancient Greek. So does anyone know what that sentence on the last page says? That "final word" that Chiron's will, a perfect diamond under the pressure of absolute fear, utters? Just curious. Either way, it was a good book.

Rating:
Summary: better than the last fifteen books you read
Review: This is perhaps my favorite Updike novel. The pathos and love of the relationship between Mr. Caldwell and his son Peter is the best writing of a father-son relationship i have ever read. Simply Mr. Caldwell is too good for this world and one of Updike's more likeable characters. His novels of the 50's and 60's seem to have more heart and vividness than some of his later work (particularly Roger's Version and S. - both of which i found lacking). But in the Centaur Updike makes a descriptive paradise out of the most mundane aspects of life: a broken down car, a high-school pep rally, morning coffee and much much more. Such things Updike turns into gold.

Truly most of the mythological stuff went over my head (my knowledge of ancient super-heros and comic books being mediocre at best), but i thought the interplay of the old fable and the story was handled well (Updike can handle anything well).

Besides having some of the most touching and memorable scenes I have read in a long time - (the images of this book have implanted themselves so firmly upon my mind that I feel i experienced the life of this novel rather than read it) - it also plays wonderfully with time - time running out, time misplaced, the span of three average days containing the musings and yearnings of a lifetime etc.

I really cannot think of one thing this book is missing: the writing, predictably, is amazing, the characterization is on the level of the Rabbit novels, and the originality of the format and the boldness of the narrative are dazzling. What more can I say?

Rating:
Summary: Unlike Anything Else (in a good way)
Review: This novel was one of the seven books I had to read this summer for AP English, and I must say, it was the most interesting of these seven. Written in a way I have never encountered - sometimes in the third person, sometimes in the first person, once from a future narrator, one chapter is just an obituary - the book is a brave attempt at portraying the life and acception of death of a man suffering from psychosis. Once the readers realize that George Caldwell is a psychotic, the book becomes a fascinating read - one does not need to be completely grounded in greek mythology to follow the book, which attempts to relate everything in Caldwell's life to the myths of the ancient greeks. It is extremely well-written; some descriptions left me wondering how Updike could ever have conceived of representing things in such a way. The characters are all genuine and wonderful; I recommend this book to anyone that has grown tired of traditional writing.

Rating:
Summary: stunning, stellar, haunting
Review: To say a book is not worth anything simply because modern readers won't be familiar with Greek myths is yet again an indication that the majority of people are imbeciles. If you aren't familiar, get familiar! Dig deeper than most commercial fiction allows. That's the wonderful thing about literature, in particular Updike. You can read this book and not know anything about Greek myths, and it still will be an amazing read. (I normally don't get sad while reading; but one sentence in particular in this book - one sentence! - almost brought me to tears.) If you happen to know Greek mythology, then the underlying symbolism in the novel will have meaning for you beyond the sheer emotion presented in the story.

As a whole, this is a wonderful, complicated book, one I plan on rereading as much as time (and other books) allow.

Also, seriously: yet again, this is proof for me that certain books (i.e. literature) cannot be listened to on tape. There is something within the optical structure of a novel that adds even more depth to the story. There is a reason a paragraph begins and end; a reason why something is in italics, or point-of-view switches from first to third. You lose all that when you listen to it. Try reading it, and maybe you'll see what I'm talking about.

Rating:
Summary: The Last Laugh
Review: [Contains spoilers, please do not read this if you don't want to know about the ending of the book!]

I was just about to write about how I didn't understand how Peter was Prometheus, but now I get it! He's in pain because of the psoriasis and having to look after his father through the three days and before that as well. Although I have to admit, George isn't really "sacrificing" himself and his death isn't going to take any pain from Peter, if anything, it will add to it. So at this point I have to say the metaphor to the mythology is a bit strained.

This book wasn't really what I expected and in this case that was a bad thing. The first 25 or so pages were very bewildering and hard for me to swallow as a reader. He gets shot with an arrow in the foot and not only to the kids delight in this (I think most of us would be freaked out to see our teacher dripping blood all over the place) but the principal takes no action at all? Did the student have to kill him before something was done? I guess the defense was that Zimmerman is a jerk and George is too much of a wimp to go over his head to the school board, but in an era of school shootings and metal detectors I suppose this just doesn't seem as real as maybe it was back in 1947, or 1962 when the book was written. Again, though, I think this was just straining to make the story fit the myth.

Anyway, after that is a series of tense/POV shifts from 1st-person past tense to 3rd-person omniscient present tense, then an obituary, and then more 1st-person and 3rd-person. It got a little disorienting for me as the reader.

I liked George and Peter once the story got past that first 25 pages and the interaction between them was well-done. The teenage son embarrassed about his dorky parent is well-worn in the sitcom realm, but in this case it didn't come off as stereotypical or stale. The descriptions got a little tedious at times, but I always admire Updike's writing prose and his ability to make the smallest details come to life in an interesting way.

I wish I did know ancient Greek so I would know the last lines, but it's probably not too important to know. Still, as a writer, isn't that a little insulting to your audience?

On the whole, this was an interesting book, but it strains too much to compare to the myth. This was a good story on its own, without the Greek mythology shoehorned in. I do feel better now that I finally get it, it's like when someone tells a joke and you finally understand the punchline hours later. What a relief!