Lord of the Flies

I've always been an enthusiastic reader, yet missed reading a lot of classics growing up. The summer after I graduated from high school I was dismayed by my ignorance of books that (it seemed like) all my peers had read. I took three months trying to catch up with a few books that seemed like “required reading.” But the list was long and I was working two jobs and knew I'd barely skimmed the surface. I'm not sure why I always ended up with English teachers who could care less about English and just took the job to coach basketball or who had done too many drugs and thought watching old movies constituted as “studying literature,” but alas prior to college I had only one teacher who actually had us read a couple books. (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Red Badge of Courage, and The Scarlet Letter—that's it! Not even Romeo and Juliet—who doesn't read that in high school???) Since then I became an English major and have read my share of classics, but still there are gaps in my knowledge of the canon. So with that history out of the way, I had never read The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, though I had owned it once. When I was around Isaac's age I had bought it through the Scholastic book order since it was only a buck, but didn't really like the cover so never read it. As Isaac and I were looking for another book to read, I figured I'd expose myself and my son to this classic in one drop.

At first, Isaac was into it. The plot drew him in—all these boys stranded on an island—what wasn't to love? But then as I asked if he wanted to read each night, his affirmative answer came more and more grudgingly until one night he confessed he was hating it. “Nothing new ever happens,” he'd complained. “Seriously, every chapter is the same thing.”

Fair enough, I agreed. I don't want to torture him with a book he doesn't like, so we've since begun reading a strange (long!) fantasy novel that I would like nothing more than to abandon. (He's enjoying it though so I'm pressing on...and faking my enthusiasm for it.)

I finished The Lord of the Flies on my own. The chapter Isaac and I had stopped at was when things change and it gets interesting again. Overall, I liked the book. I thought it was well written, though at times confusing. Isaac was annoyed with how it often neglected to note who was speaking. I told him I thought it was because it didn't matter, that there were so many boys and the idea was they almost merged together like a mob, that their individuality was lost. (I have no idea if that's true, but just my interpretation. I'm not interested enough to go read up on the literary criticism.) I think the writing is powerful and the story (though it definitely dragged in the middle) was good. I'm hoping Isaac gives it a chance again when he's older.