Down on The Farm

The Child's class is going to be reading George Orwell's Animal Farm. I'm so excited. She's reading my copy, inscribed in my halting 8th grade hand. The more things change...

I read Animal Farm when I was in the 8th grade, too, but not because my teacher assigned it. Back in the day, when my dad, Sean Connery, was still teaching, he had a summertime ritual with the head of the English department. He and Mr. N would go off to a bookstore (probably Powell's, in Portland, although I'm not sure about that). This was always a red letter day for me because daddy would come home with a huge box full of books. In that box were always a few treasures that Mr. N had chose just for me and given to daddy with a "Lori has to read this". (Yes, they called me 'Lori' back then. Don't you ever. Rainey is just fine).

Mr. N never, ever steered me wrong. If he said it was a must read, it was. Three of the most important books I've ever read came on his recommendation.

Animal Farm was one of those. I wouldn't say that my political sensitivity was that high back then. I was a product of the Cold War and necessarily hated the Russians because they wanted to kill me and make me not believe in God. (Sting hadn't yet reminded us that Russians love their children, too). I knew, then, that communism was baaaaad. It would be a long time before I would read Marx for myself and then decide that communism was baaaaad not because of anything he wrote (which I mostly appreciated) but because his adherents were such an intensely dour lot. Which is all to say that the political subtext of the book escaped me on the first read. But it was a profound parable nonetheless. Plus it had talking animals.

Mr. N is also responsible for my reading The Diary of Anne Frank. That book is forever connected in my mind with figs, because I read it under our fig tree, under the cool shade of the tree's broad leaves, the air rich with the thrum of drunk bees who wobbled about on the soft, fallen figs. I haven't read the book as an adult, and I suppose I should but I think I don't because the potency of that book for me was in the identification with Anne's teen-ness. She was grumpy and manic, crushing on boys and generally being a pain in the ass. It was the first time I read something written by someone my age. Our experiences couldn't have been more different, of course. It's not like I didn't see that. But for me that book was way more about coming of age; Anne's crazy helped me see that all my hot and cold running moods didn't make me insane after all.

After those two books I'll bet your thinking, what other classic gem of literature was your "must read"? The Odyssey? Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man? The Great Gatsby perhaps?

Nope. It was a little gem called The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare. It is up there on my list of Top 10 Favorite Books of All Time. It's the story of a girl named Kit, who after the death of her grandfather, is forced to leave her home in Barbados and live with her aunt's family in Wethersfield, Connecticut. It's a classic fish-out-of-water tale, as a young, spirited and educated young lady comes smack up against Puritanism. It's brilliant. I love it with all my heart. It was a perfect summertime read: drama, romance, politics, witch trials, more romance. I have reread that book every single year since...something like 40 times now.

A couple years ago I tried to get The Child into it. It didn't take. Perhaps I'll try again this year but for now I'm enjoying seeing her get into Animal Farm. Oh! and here's the thing. Yesterday she stayed home from school (tummy complaints...which I've since diagnosed as a serious case of "senioritis"). I played it tough and wouldn't let her play on the computer or watch TV. Instead I made her start reading the book. I had to satisfy myself that she had indeed begun it so at bedtime last night I asked her to tell me about it.

"Well, there's this cool boar named 'Snowball'...I like him...and he and his friends got the other animals to make a rebellion against the farmer...that was funny when they pushed him and his friends into the wheelbarrow...and the animals wrote these 7 Commandments and they are 'Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy...whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend..no animal shall wear clothes'... "

At which point I was convinced since she was reciting all this to me without aid of the book.

Know what else I'm excited about? The fact that she's getting into a book that wasn't written by J.K. Rowling.