6160 A Diary of the Urban Gardener and Cook

With the onset of Winter, reading seems to always take a hard turn towards classical literature at 6160. This year proves to be no exception. What's important about these novels is you can return to them time and time again and they feel as fresh as the first time you read them, with each new reading providing some insight, some twist of language, that was missed previously.

1. Fathers and Sons - I have five all time favorite authors (Honore de Balzac, Theodore Dreiser, Jane Austen, Ellis Peters, and Ivan Turgenev). This novel, by Turgenev, I have read countless times and am always reminded of the very first time I read it. Having spent most of my childhood in the 70s, I recall my parents endlessly discussing the rebellious nature of "my generation" and how the hippies, free love, and counterculture of the 60s introduced all this unpleasantness. Fresh out of high school, I had gone on a classical literature "tear", if you will; it was during this time I first read Turgenev. Fathers and Sons, written in 1862, was a total eye opener - this teen angst and rebelliousness my parents blamed on the 60s had been around time immemorial (maybe they meant the 1860s when Turgenev penned the novel?). The book is not really a trip back in time; it's far more relevant than many would suspect. Another plus - his style of writing is clean and direct.

2. Madame Bovary - as a complete opposite on the spectrum sits Flaubert and his most famous novel, Madame Bovary, written in 1857. While his writing tends to be florid and dramatic (he was notorious for searching for "le mot juste" which translated means "the right word"), from a sheer entertainment perspective one can hardly go wrong by taking one part somewhat clever slut, one part dullard middle class husband, and one part nasty blackmailing merchant and stirring vigorously (the book was beyond obscene for its time). Madame Bovary is one of those literary oddities where you really don't like any of the characters you're encountering and yet, you definitely don't mind watching the drama unfold. Honore de Balzac follows a somewhat similar path in his writing (maybe it's a French thing...); however, what makes Balzac one of my all time favorite authors is that he realizes how truly awful the characters are and ensures you are laughing along the way, whereas Flaubert tends to feel more soap opera. But I could use a good soap opera-like experience that doesn't involve a cast member from Jersey Shore...