Modern Good Reads discussion

Riatha from The Eye of the Hunter and Fury from The Hunters (Ironic, such similar titles, even though both books are totally different!)

Why, because they are both strong females who do not "depend" on men to get them out of fixes, but who aren't natzi-feminist-I-Am-Better-Than-A-Man. They both work as partners with strong males and both carry their own in this world. Plus, there is just something amazing about a woman who carries a weapon! At least, to me there is ;)

Dianne wrote: "What heroines come to mind for you? Women who stayed in your memory long after the book was finished, and why?"

I finished Willa Cather's O Pioneers! the day before seeing the new film of The Great Gatsby. The characters of Alexandra and Gatsby make an interesting contrast. Whereas he goes East, invents a new self, and becomes lost in the clouds of a destructive fantasy, she remains in Nebraska with feet on the ground, clinging to her origins, cultivating the land, and supporting her foundering brothers.

At one point she remarks that the frontier is full of dreamers, but the dreams of pioneers could not be further from Gatsby's dream. The values embodied in the two characters point to a polarity in the American character, and a class in American values might do well to teach these two novels side-by-side.