Rebecca ... Continued: Chapter 6

This book can get quite addicting. I don't know what about it that makes you want more but I've been hooked!
By now in the book, we have found out who the mysterious Rebecca is: the dead wife of Maxim de Winter. The thing is, then who's the narrator? We have yet to find out. In the novel at this point, we see a romance growing between our heroine and Mr.De Winter... I mean it was bound to happen eventually, but who knew it'd happen so quickly? But can their love be when their class differences separate them. Also, it seems like Mr.De Winter's past haunts him. Whenever Menderley is mentioned, he seems to drift away from reality, but I do not think he has a strong connection to his house or anything... more likely, the past of his wife till this day leaves his heart in anguish. Even our heroine seems to be influenced by this Rebecca; seeing her name in Maxim's book and just by how confidently she write, the narrator is intimidated and somewhat jealous of this strong, influential lady. Hopefully our narrator will not be too influenced by this Rebecca, because there certainly is chemistry between Maxim de Winter and herself.

Rebecca

Temporarily, I am dropping Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, the language is hard to understand and I, personally, do not feel like spending too much interpretting it, therefore, I picked out a new book this week: Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.
Rebecca is about a heroine--who remains nameless--who lives in Europe with her husband, Maxim de Winter, traveling from hotel to hotel, remembering of a beautiful home called Manderley, which, we learn, has been destroyed by a fire. The story begins with her memories of how she and Maxim first met, in Monte Carlo, years before. During that time, she was traveling along with Mrs. Van Hopper, whose very air is gossip, and with her help, she meets Maxim de Winter. By the way he greets her, I feel some static in the air, and possibly some unexpected emotions. During this meeting, the narrator is still a fresh-out-of-school girl: she is young, inexperienced, and pretty unexposed to the world. You feel in her a certain ambition to get away from the lifestyle and time she lives in. A time where women were "indoor" people and considered slightly inferior to men. Through her thoughts you could see her yearning for something better : " I sighed, and turned away from the window. The sun was so full of promise, and the sea was whipped white with a merry wind."(22) 
Then again, what she's yearning for isn't just for a better life, but maybe for happiness. Possibly Mr. de Winter will play a role in making this come true! 

A Tale of Two Cities

 A Tale of Two Cities takes place during 1775 during the time when Britain was handling the American revolution, and when France was had excessive spending,  extreme violence, a trend that anticipates the erection of the guillotine (the Reign of Terror). All in all, Charles Dickens spoke of a time including much instability, corruption, chaos, and much distrust amongst people in government and citizens. Dickens was able to summarize it all as "the best of times, [...and] the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..." (3).

So far, my only concern about this book is the fact that its archaic language is hard for me to adapt to. Otherwise, I really love Charles Dickens' style of writing: with his deep descriptions, as well as sophisticated tone, it's hard not to want to read more.

Vanishing Acts: The Ending

In one weekend alone, I read the whole book, Vanishing Acts (at least from the part I left of on in my last blog entry). If that isn't proof enough that this book was pretty much outstanding... then I don't know what is. I didn't put down this book at all while reading it! At the beginning of the book, the story was slightly slow, but gradually, the conflict, drama, and twists started building up until... KABOOM, everything collapsed and the world of Delia Hopkins shattered before her eyes as the identity of Bethany Matthews slowly revealed itself. What really frustrated me in the book was the suspense that went on in the story:  as the father endures his time in jail (dealing with gangs, violence, and drug dealing that goes on), as Eric struggles with his problems as an alcoholic, his marriage with Delia, and the case of Andrew, as Fitz hides his secret love for Delia and fights the urge to write his newspaper story on her, and as Delia discovers her "past life" (before being kidnapped) and struggles in her life as a single-mom. Regardless of the suspense that tortured me throughout the novel, I loved it!

The great parts about Jodi Picoult's books are that they involve so many different elements. Like, the elements of love, suspense, drama, law, and that each book of hers revolves around controversial topics of today. Even though the books are fiction, they not only portray what goes on in the court scenes, but what is being thought by the lawyers, the accused, and even the loved ones of those affected by the case.