I think I spend too much time trying to solve for the author of a book, in general, when I read. Really I suppose I should kill the author, that is the cool thing to do. But I think here that is my criticism of this book - while aesthetically, technically quite sound (impressive even? great maybe? approaching greatness, at the least), I’m just not that much of a fan of how the author drips through the cracks. The author is someone who read that the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation, who admires the stoic farmer and romanticizes the farmer poet. Which, like, fair! The farmer-poet is romantic, and there is a lot of desperation around. And I have enjoyed or at least gotten something out of sad or depressing or hopeless books before - they can provide solace, or validation, or a call to action, they can contain a new way of looking at things whose impact shatters against your soul, or a new way to empathize with people. Not to be like comprehensive about it, but those are what I have gotten.

And this, well if I am looking for the raisin debt here, I guess it is a dreary story to show that a love of literature and of teaching can provide meaning beyond the dreariness? It surely is at least partly a lovestory of literature and its impact. And on one hand, the story of the arrow of Shakespeare’s sonnet piercing the heart of a naive farmer boy is just a bit trite, the story of the brave stand in defense of literary principles against the well-spoken but grudge-bearing bad student with a handicap just seemed a bit poor-taste. The other hand is this: that its (the author’s, maybe?) perception of literature just did not really align with or stir in my own perception and admiration for reading. I can’t really articulate what was missing or distinct, that was the author’s job, but it didn’t ring true and so I am here.

Which is not to say it failed in its one and only project. It is an admirable work, I can understand loving it for qualities beyond or because its perception on literature was revelatory. Just not quite for me