My Top 3 Reads of Second Year

It goes without saying that as an English Literature student I love to read and of course do it regularly. As I placed my books on the shelf to mark the end of Second Year, I realised just how much I enjoyed this year's texts and studying new areas.

I decided to compile a list of my top 3 reads from this year that I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a new book to pick up.

---

#3 The Monk

Number 3 is The Monk by Matthew Lewis, which I studied in the module 'Gothic Fiction: The Romantic Age'. As an avid reader of the Gothic genre, I was really excited to explore some new texts that I haven’t read before and Lewis certainly didn’t disappoint.

This dark, twisted tale explores complex relationships between religion, sexuality, and superstition. The protagonist Ambrosio is a renowned monk in Madrid who has a golden reputation and who many people travel to come and hear his sermons. The novel follows his journey of temptation and inevitable downfall.

Set in 18th Century Madrid, Lewis was definitely writing a scandalous story in portraying the monk as a heavily sexualised and violent figure. There is melodrama everywhere in the convoluted plot, following Ambrosio as he explores his shameful desires. I think that is what made this novel stand out among other Gothic texts from this time period; it is especially dark and melancholy.

Having said that, it definitely falls within classic Gothic tropes, especially when it comes to female characters who are repeatedly objectified, dismissed, and punished for trying to assert their own independence.

You may be wondering why this is listed in my top 3 if it is so twisted and at times salacious. To put it simply, I think it is a literary genius and explores the Gothic genre in a groundbreaking way for its time. Being published in the first wave of the Gothic, it definitely provided the foundations for some darker themes explored later on in well-known works, such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

While such violent themes are at times portrayed graphically, this is a must-read for anyone like me who has a special place in their heart for the Gothic!

---

#2 A Widow’s Story

I studied Joyce Carol Oates’ A Widow’s Story in my 'Writing Mourning' module. I think it’s obvious to expect to cover some difficult topics when you sign up for a module with such a name, but this text was at times particularly difficult to read.

Oates’ memoir shares her unedited story of becoming a widow and all the struggles involved. Being non-fiction, Oates didn’t exclude any details about the intensity of her grief, writing in a carefree manner to display her exact emotions of loss and loneliness when her husband passed away. I think that’s what made the experience of reading this text all the more emotive; knowing that the overwhelming hurt, pain, and anxiety on the pages weren’t a fragment of the imagination, but rather Oates' very real loss.

What really stuck out for me was that no matter how much Oates tried to continue ‘normal’ life after the death of her husband, his absence changed the meaning of normality and this disrupted all areas of her life. Throughout the text, she is reminded of him and at times avoids places that will evoke those memories in order to leave them untouched by grief.

I find it particularly interesting how Oates creates a dual identity as a way to cope, distinguishing between her private and public personas. Her private self ‘Smith’ is the widow, while her public self ‘Oates’ is rather the author who must maintain a professional reputation. This allows Oates to escape the intense emotions of mourning when in public. This is something I'm sure many of us can resonate with, to an extent concealing our ‘true’ selves from the public realm.

Where death may remain a taboo topic in many books, I think Oates' approach of providing raw and authentic detail of her grief creates a real insight into widowhood for her readers. Mourning is of course a subjective process, but as someone who has experienced a loss of a loved one, I definitely found myself relating to Oates' words on some level.

---

#1 What We Lose

My top read of Second Year has to be What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons. This was also studied in the 'Writing Mourning' module, as we looked at contemporary texts of grief and mourning. I feel like every English student has a type of literature that is their 'thing', they particularly favour it, and by no means have I ever thought modern texts were mine. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised by books such as this and found studying modern texts a really enjoyable change.

Clemmons' novel is a bildungsroman story of Thandi, a South African girl in her late teens living in the US, who goes through the tragedy of losing her mother to cancer.

With a non-chronological timeline, Clemmons jumps back and forth between Thandi’s memories, the time she was caring for her mother, and her life after the death. I found it interesting that Clemmons chose to have inconsistent page lengths, although this proves effective as the page lengths often align with the content of the text, such as shorter pages for transient memories.

I really found myself drawn to the story of What We Lose and how dynamic its range of themes are; it’s a story about loss but simultaneously deals with themes of loneliness, friendships, relationships, university, and other adolescent experiences.

There is a sense of the mother’s presence in every difficulty Thandi experiences throughout her life. Whether in the form of a memory or an understanding of what her mother would do in a particular situation, the loss doesn’t seem to mean complete absence for Thandi. That’s the main message I took away from Clemmons’ novel - the impact a parent makes on a child is eternal and so this loss can never be absolute.

While this novel is fiction, I feel at times it is written from a place of reality for Clemmons who drew on her own experience of caring for her mother who had cancer. Perhaps adopting a fictitious approach allows her to conceal her own emotions of mourning, acting as a protective barrier over her vulnerability. Nevertheless, Thandi’s story is one many can empathise with and is truly touching.

Overall, this was an easy and very addictive read - I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting! Clemmons’ language is at times blunt and to the point, but that only makes sense when dealing with the overwhelming emotional rollercoaster of grief and makes the novel all the more accessible to her readership.

---

There is so much more I could say about these texts, but if I continue I might end up rewriting my university essays ;) I absolutely loved my second year of English Literature and being able to study such amazing books. There is such a variety of themes within these texts, so there is definitely something for everyone!