When I was 9, or mybe even 8, I read White Fang by Jack London. As I kid I felt so grown up for having read what I considered an “adult book” at that age. In class we could read a book then on the class computer we could take a multiple choice test on it for points. Childrens books were usually 2 or 3 points, but White Fang was 22 points. I don’t remember exactly how I did, but I remember being happy about the score, and I was in the advanced program in elementary school, so I’m assuming I did pretty well. Who knows though.
But anyways, I’m positive that the themes, and motifs, and life lessons, and philosophies in that book went right over my little head. I probably only cared about the mother wolf raising the cubs and White Fang fighting the Bulldog.
Now looking back at it, there’s so much depth. Family bonds, identity, a sense of community, effects of abuse, and on and on. Examining it now as an adult feels like it’s a completely new book, and I wasn’t old enouigh to appreciate it and understand it the way I can now.
That leads to this question. Are there any books that you can appreciate and delve into the layers of more now that you’re older and maybe even wiser?
Tale of Two Cities. Dickens’ descriptions are long but they stack. The next time he describes the same place he builds on his previous metaphors. It reminds me a lot of “Hamilton” where Lin Manuel Miranda will have 3 different meanings in a phrase.
Lin Manuel is the new Dickens.
The Stranger, but it definitely did not help that I read it in French and was still learning. Even then though, I feel like even once I understood what was being said I didn’t really understand what it was trying to do, and just thought it was weird.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Read it when I was 14 and didn’t fully grasp what the characters were going through, I especially disliked Midori and thought she was outright annoying. Until I re-read it as a young adult, it suddenly hit me that she felt insecure beneath the outspoken and rebellious appearance. I read the book a few more times in my adulthood and every time still brings me new perspectives.
I read Tropic of Cancer too young, lol. It was shocking. It is still shocking, but it was shocking too.