I was talking to a friend about comedic / farcical literature the other day, and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller came up. That made me remember - I first read this book when I was about 15 years old. Or rather I read about 80% of it, didn’t quite finish it that time. I forced myself through it because I had heard it was subversive and intelligent and challenging, and I got nothing out of it. I didn’t see the humor, I didn’t get any political commentary, it was just a series of absurd things happening to absurd characters with no rhyme or reason.
I reread that book two years ago and damn near pissed myself laughing on every other page, but then the ending rolled around and it hit so hard. That sudden switch from absurdist comedy to heavy, bleak, depressing, and then he gives you just this glimmer of hope at the end anyway. I found it absolutely brilliant, and yet I kept thinking back to how none of this connected with me when I first read it.
Do you have books like that? Books that just plain went over your head, that you didn’t have the maturity to appreciate, that were too difficult in style or subject matter, and that you’ve come to appreciate years later?
A Separate Peace–6th grade
I don’t remember why my teacher assigned this book and I’m not really sure I care anymore. I had no concept of a boarding school at that age–my grade school was only four blocks from my house. I didn’t understand why all these boys weren’t calling the house parents Mom and Dad (I thought it was just a big family) and it wasn’t until I saw a newspaper article a few years ago that I realized the kid who falls out of a tree (?) at the end of the book actually died…I thought he just disappeared.
You’re not the first person I’ve seen who didn’t connect the dots on this one. I think Finny falling out of the tree is so deliberately underplayed and then him dying later >!from a blood clot because of it!<, that it is easy to miss what was happening.
The narrator is unreliable and doesn’t dwell on the fact >!that he is responsible for Finny falling.!<
I am also surprised when I talk to people who have read it, boomers in particular, who did not notice that it is a >!queer tragedy and that the narrator gay panics when he causes Finny to fall!<. Boomers just want the book to be about love and friendship and so I ask them, “well if that’s the case, what is the whole point of the book and why is it considered a classic?” They don’t usually have an answer to that.