Book Review: Western Lit Survival Kit

Sandra Newman’s hilarious new nonfiction book, The Western Lit Survival Kit: An Irreverent Guide to the Classics, from Homer to Faulkner, is a re-introduction to the classics many of us dreaded reading in English classrooms across the country (in both high school and college).  She contends that the guilt many of us feel over never having read the Collected Works of Shakespeare or Ulysses weighs on us a little too heavily: “Reading about the Great Books is now a votive act, like buying a gym membership although you never go” (i).  She argues, instead, that, “literature is a pleasure.  It should be emotionally satisfying, intellectually thrilling, and just plain fun.  And if it isn’t, you shouldn’t feel bad about not reading it” (i).  Amen!

Newman takes us on a tour through the western canon (don’t worry, she prefaces all of this with a note about how the canon isn’t perfect, but she can’t change that) and rates each author and his (occasionally her) work on a scale of 1-10 in importance, accessibility, and fun. I loved that she chose those three indicators–though I wish she’d spent more time explaining what exactly made a work important, accessible, or fun.  (Luckily, my favorite Shakespeare plays–Othello, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night–all rated 9 in fun, with which I agree.)

I learned a lot of cool facts.  For instance, a copy of Ovid’s The Art of Love (written around the time of the birth of Christ) is essentially a book of sex tips–and it was confiscated as pornography in the U.S. as late as 1930.  I finally learned where exactly the phrase “deus ex machina” came from–in Greek drama, an actor playing a god would be mechanically lowered onto the stage, thus bringing about the desired happy ending (which Newman compares to the current obsession with special effects). Emile Zola sent his friend Paul Cezanne a copy of his novel The Masterpiece (the main character is based on Cezanne). Apparently, Cezanne sent Zola a thank you card and the two then never spoke again. Hilarious.

All in all, I enjoyed revisiting some works that I read in high school and college and seeing them in a new light.  All in all, though, I wonder who Newman’s audience is.  I liked reading about literature because I like reading literature.  Her goal seems to be to entice folks who’ve had a bad literary experience (or a whole four years of high school of bad literary experiences), but sometimes it feels like she’s preaching to the choir.

However, if you’re a literary nerd and want to continue to impress your friends with your nerdiness, the Western Lit Survival Kit is for you!

Check out the other TLC Book Tour reactions here!