Mark Twain

Most folks my age were, at some point, required to read Huckleberry Finn, and, I am sure, that in most cases, your teacher killed the book for you. Teachers tend to do this by forcing attention on things like themes, symbolism, and social significance. Certainly all of those things are present in Twain's masterpiece, but they are all secondary to the story. It is just a hell of a story.

Twain was able to capture the essence of youth; fear and courage, fun and exploration, rebellion and cunning. These are characteristics of kids in all ages, as much, I think, in our time as in his.

Twain had a gift that most writers lack and one that I am sure they envy, he was funny. Generally, in literature, humor, when present, may evoke a smile or maybe a chuckle. Twain was able to write scenes that are side-splittingly funny. Of course, Huck Finn is also, at times deeply serious, even frightening, and, here and there, heart breakingly sad.

I don't know if they even still teach this book in schools. I am not sure they actually do a lot of teaching these days. For those who had mind numbingly dull teachers in school who forced this book on you, read it again, for the fun of it. It is among the very few masterpieces in American literature.

If you enjoy it, and I am sure you will, give some of his other books a go. Personally, I was not that thrilled with Tom Sawyer, but I can heartily recommend Roughing It, Life on the Mississippi, The Gilded Age, Innocents Abroad and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

There are 2 other, less read books of his I will recommend. I believe that they are less read because they are dark and bitter, written late in his life after he had lost loved ones. They are Letters From the Earth and, especially, The Mysterious Stranger. Life is fun and grand, but any view of life that does not deal with the darkly bitter aspects that color our time on Earth is puerile.

Read Twain. He is perhaps our greatest writer ( his only match may be Melville and I will write of him next time).