William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" (1930)

I hate Anse Bundren. I finished this novel and that's what I thought, how much I hate Anse Bundren. His selfishness drives the whole novel in a place and time where men worked women to death. Of course his wife Addie wasn't lovable either, but I understood Addie. She just wanted to be alone and at peace. Why she married Anse though, that is never really explained and in some ways seems out of character for a school teacher who hated children to choose marriage which meant bearing children.

I don't think this is my favorite of Faulkner's, I preferred Absalom Absalom, but I am glad I've read this book.

Toni Morrison's "Tar Baby" (1981)

I really enjoyed reading this book because it presented cultures that were so different to mine and yet I was still able to empathise with the characters. I also enjoyed the mystical/mythical aspects of the work, although that might not be for everyone. This is a story that has remained with me because I cared about the people in it, and the way that it dealt with acts of evil committed by complicated people who were at their core not evil themselves. It shows how we can hurt the ones we love and take advantage of them and that sometimes, redemption is just plain refused.

Edith Wharton's "The Reef" (1912)

I listened to this on BBC Radio 7. Frankly it depressed me somewhat with its constrained morality and manners. It was however beautiful writing and a study into the finer life of the upper class where vulgarity and emotion was forbidden. On the other hand for a modern woman it was frustrating to see how rigid society was, and how the characters failed to communicate their deepest selves barely only skimming it themselves. Still we are talking about a society that corseted women into alien shapes physically, so why not expect that to happen with women's souls as well.