Posted Friday, June 16, 2006, The OG, news

Misplaced your summer reading list? Curious about what other students have been asked to peruse? Not to worry. Here's a look at what the English department has assigned this summer, along with some tips to guide your reading.

JUNIORS & SENIORS
All juniors and seniors are required to read the following books over the summer in order to prepare for fall English classes. As you read, consider the questions your instructor has provided. All books will be available at Pages for All Ages. (Mention that you're buying the book for Uni summer reading, and Pages will give you a discount.)

Shakespeare Summer Reading

Those taking the Shakespeare class in the fall should read “The Daughter of Time” by Josephine Tey. (“Light Thickens” by Ngaio Marsh was unavailable, so Shakespeare students will be responsible for only one book.) This is a murder mystery that incorporates one of the Shakespearean plays we will be studying. Look for how the Shakespearean play works in the novel. Ponder the appeal Shakespeare still holds on our modern consciousness. Enjoy trying to solve a good mystery before the detective in the book!

Nineteenth-Century Novel Summer Reading

To prepare for the Nineteenth Century Novel class, please read Jane Austen's “Persuasion.” (Be sure to get the Penguin Classics edition.) We will spend the first several days of class discussing and writing about “Persuasion,” so you may want to read it toward the end of the summer. While reading, take some basic notes. Keeping a character map will help you remember who's who and how characters are connected. Make a list of major characters and keep track of adjectives the narrator uses to describe each. Pay attention to which characters the narrator seems to favor and which she likes least, and note differences in the adjectives — positive and negative — that she uses for male characters versus female characters. As you read the novel, keep the title in mind. What is “persuasion,” in the context of this book? Who wields it and how? How does Anne (the central character) view the “persuasion” in her life? And does her perspective change as the plot progresses? (A note: The first chapter gives some family history that's slow going. Keep reading. Once you get to Anne Eliot and her family in chapter two, things pick up.)

African-American Literature Summer Reading
Please read “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison. This novel is quite long; allow adequate time to read carefully. Please read with a pen or pencil handy and mark passages that seem significant or memorable (you may even want to take a few notes). This will be the first novel we discuss.

As you are reading, keep these questions in mind:

What is the relationship between individual identity and community identity? How does the narrator fail or succeed to assert his individuality amid communities such as the college, the Brotherhood, and Harlem? What is his relationship to the larger white community?

Richard Wright, author of “Black Boy” and “Native Son,” criticized Ellison for not being political enough in this novel. Wright felt that African-American authors should be writing novels of social protest that vividly depicted the social inequalities that African-Americans suffered at the hands of white society. What do you think of this criticism?

SOPHOMORES
In preparation for next year's English course, over the summer you are required to read Kazuo Ishiguro's 1988 novel, “The Remains of the Day.” This novel serves as an excellent introduction to British culture between the world wars, as the empire waned and older traditions gave way to modernity.

The narrator is a butler at the family estate of Lord Darlington, and the story centers upon his efforts to make sense of some ambiguous and troubling events surrounding his employer's sympathies for the German people. If you haven't read many British novels, you may find some of the language and syntax challenging; this will be good preparation for the kind of reading we'll be doing next year. Don't worry if you feel like you're not always completely “getting” everything about this novel — it's all about ambiguity and uncertainty, as the narrator second-guesses events from his past, and confusion is part of the point. Just do your best with it, pay attention, and keep reading. And remain open to the possibility that you may find certain episodes in the novel riotously funny.

Yes, this novel has indeed been adapted as a film (starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson), and while you are welcome to view it after you complete the book, to better picture the setting and characters or to compare the director's interpretation of the novel to your own, do not entertain, even for a moment, the possibility that the film might be substituted for actually reading the novel. Ishiguro is centrally concerned with the unreliability of memory and narrative, issues that the film generally neglects. Students who have not read the novel with care will start the year at a considerable disadvantage.

The book will be available for purchase at Pages for All Ages, as well as other local and online retailers.

Be sure that you have completed the novel before school begins in August. Read with a pen or pencil nearby and take notes as you read. Keep the following questions in mind, and be prepared to discuss and/or write about them in the fall:

1. As you read, continually assess Stevens as a character and as a narrator. Are you confident in his interpretation of the events he describes? In his ability to remember them accurately? If not, what gets in the way of his reliability as a narrator? (Keep in mind that he is relating his memories of events of the past, sometimes as long as 40 years ago.) What is your general reaction to Stevens? Do you admire him, sympathize with him, pity him?

2. As the head butler in a “great house,” Stevens is extremely preoccupied both with “professionalism” and with appropriate behavior and conduct. How does he define professionalism? How does his father influence this worldview? What factors determine whether conduct is appropriate or not? What impact do these things have on his emotional life? What ethical or moral conflicts arise as a result of these preoccupations?

Have a fine summer, and enjoy your summer reading.

FRESHMEN
What do magician Harry Houdini, manufacturer Henry Ford, feminist Emma Goldman, rebel Emilino Zapata, and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud have in common? Find out in E.L. Doctorow's “Ragtime,” a novel that captures the spirit of America in the early years of the 20th century.

Then pick up a copy of Forrest Carter's “The Education of Little Tree” and read about a young boy who lives with his Cherokee grandparents in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee during the 1930s. Learn how Little Tree teaches his grandparents to stand up for their rights.

Both books can be purchased at Pages for All Ages and should be finished by the end of summer. You will have a comprehension quiz before we discuss these works during the first week of school.

A number of students have asked if they could read William Golding's “Lord of the Flies,” last year's selection, for extra credit. Upon successful completion of another comprehension quiz, extra credit will be awarded. (You will need to earn a score of 70 percent or above.)

• Carter, Forrest. “The Education of Little Tree.” University of New Mexico Press. ISBN: 0826328091
• Doctorow, E. L. “Ragtime.” New York: Penguin. ISBN: 0452279070
• Extra credit: Golding, William. “Lord of the Flies.” Perigree. ISBN 0-399-50148-7

SUBFRESHMEN

Incoming subfreshmen should read Salman Rushdie, “Haroun and the Sea of Stories,” and Erik Larson, “Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History.”

Rushdie, a native of India, is best known for his adult novels, but this is a book he wrote for his children while he was in exile. (A long story, but don't worry about it!) As you read, take note of the following questions:

1. What do you see as the underlying message — or an underlying message, since there may be more than one — in the novel. Think theme.

2. One thing Rushdie does in this book is play with language. How does this use of language add to the book? How does it reinforce his message? Find a passage that illustrates your thinking.

The second book on the list is nonfiction. Nonfiction usually presents a different style of writing, but often incorporates many of the techniques of fiction. As you read “Isaac's Storm,” look for those places where the book seems like a novel and those places where stylistically the book differs from a novel. Watch for the author's use of history and science. In fact, you can expect to deal with this summer reading selection in your science class as well as in English.