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A review by danielle_w
Reading Between the Lines by Gene Edward Veith Jr.
4.0
"History, philosophy, and concrete human life come together in literature."- Chapter 10.
I started this book for a class, and the class had us jump around reading just a couple chapters. This gave me a wrong impression of Veith Jr. Unfortunately, both chapters were full of a lot of subjective opinions, including many that I did not agree with, and names that he mentioned as influential were critics that I knew I didn't agree with. So I got off to a rocky start. But! I'm glad I picked up the book to finish reading the rest because it was an insightful book. Veith divides the book into four sections- an introduction to literature, criticism, and the place for Christians in both; the forms of literature, such as nonfiction, fiction, and poetry; genres of literature; and the history and waves of literature. I particularly enjoyed his chapters on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and his chapter on Postmodernism. I also enjoyed him taking the time to analyze select poems throughout the book, which gave a sort of guide and exercise for English lovers reading his book- I learnt much through his process.
Veith is a tenured English professor, so he speaks with authority. Though this book is not only for English or Lit majors, it does require a familiarity of literary criticism and modes of language.
There were a few points I disagreed with, only due to the fact that there is a lot of grey areas in any humanity subjects and I felt Veith made strong statements and interpreted things in a different way than I would. For example, he gave a rather scathing review of why modern literature is trying to recognize minority voices, interpreting this as a purely political move. I would venture to disagree and recognize that there are many minority voices that were as (or maybe more) gifted than majority voices and we are retrospectively recognizing this. And really- where's the problem?- more good books for us all! On a similar plane, I do wish he would have recognized more diverse authors than he did in this book. Lastly, I am still trying to wrap my mind around why Christian writers lionize Flannery O'Connor so much, pls don't at me.
I started this book for a class, and the class had us jump around reading just a couple chapters. This gave me a wrong impression of Veith Jr. Unfortunately, both chapters were full of a lot of subjective opinions, including many that I did not agree with, and names that he mentioned as influential were critics that I knew I didn't agree with. So I got off to a rocky start. But! I'm glad I picked up the book to finish reading the rest because it was an insightful book. Veith divides the book into four sections- an introduction to literature, criticism, and the place for Christians in both; the forms of literature, such as nonfiction, fiction, and poetry; genres of literature; and the history and waves of literature. I particularly enjoyed his chapters on the Enlightenment and Romanticism, and his chapter on Postmodernism. I also enjoyed him taking the time to analyze select poems throughout the book, which gave a sort of guide and exercise for English lovers reading his book- I learnt much through his process.
Veith is a tenured English professor, so he speaks with authority. Though this book is not only for English or Lit majors, it does require a familiarity of literary criticism and modes of language.
There were a few points I disagreed with, only due to the fact that there is a lot of grey areas in any humanity subjects and I felt Veith made strong statements and interpreted things in a different way than I would. For example, he gave a rather scathing review of why modern literature is trying to recognize minority voices, interpreting this as a purely political move. I would venture to disagree and recognize that there are many minority voices that were as (or maybe more) gifted than majority voices and we are retrospectively recognizing this. And really- where's the problem?- more good books for us all! On a similar plane, I do wish he would have recognized more diverse authors than he did in this book. Lastly, I am still trying to wrap my mind around why Christian writers lionize Flannery O'Connor so much, pls don't at me.