I recently applied for a job to write the equivalent of Cliffs Notes for classic, YA literature, and poetry (would’ve been a pretty cool gig), but alas, I didn’t get it. However, one of the questions I was asked had to do with my favorite book when I was a teenager, and it was fun to think about and come up with a response, so I thought I’d put it on my blog.
I want to write that I grew up loving to read, and while I’ve always loved stories, reading was hard, and it was hard for me to enjoy what was difficult.
One high school year though, I was assigned The Scarlet Letter, and probably it was the suggestion of my parents, or the librarian next door who always seemed to keep a literary eye on me, and it could’ve been my own frustration over time spent trudging through stories I wanted to understand and connect with but could not, but along with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s book came the black and yellow Cliffs Notes companion that proved to be a patron as I made my way through the story of Hester Prynne.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Cliffs Notes told me. “Here’s what to look out for,” the booklet offered. The resource gave me the plot so I could enjoy the story.
I can’t declare The Scarlet Letter a favorite book, but reading it is a favorite memory because I began to learn how to confront and contend with a difficult text, and in so doing, I was shaped by the story.
So the books that come to mind when I read the word “favorite” are those I had an opportunity to grapple with. I love Kristin Lavransdatter because for one year I read and analyzed it for its description, for Kristin’s quest for love, for faith, for mother and womanhood. I read it for the deep complexity of each of the characters, and I did this with a group of women who were willing to wrestle with the book along with me.
I love Walk Two Moons because it is a story within a set of stories and they’re all tangled up with each other. It takes patience and endurance to pay attention and the payoff is reading a tale with characters that are genuine and tender and hilarious. We walk away believing that everyone has a story to tell and live, and paying attention to those stories is a form of love.
When I was an 8th grade English teacher, I taught Romeo and Juliet, and I did my best to become a patron for my students, as Cliffs Notes was for me, and I took on the tragedy for my students. I became a compass and while they knew where they were headed, they could still dance at the masquerade, mess around with Mercutio and Queen Mab, stand with Juliet in the tomb as she reckons with and grieves the cost of becoming the heroine of this story.
I love Romeo and Juliet for its difficulty in topic and language, and I love it because every time I teach the play, I find something else to see and love.
I cannot name a favorite book, but my favorite part of reading is having the willingness to attend to and contend with a story, and offering ways for others to do the same, and we learn to do the thing we think we cannot do.
We learn to love what is difficult.
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