Book Review: The Red Pony

Ummm...I really enjoyed this book. It was very easy to read and the plot lines and dialogues kept me turning the pages quickly. But, I don't think I really grasped everything that Steinbeck was trying to communicate. The text is surprisingly simple to read, but I sensed that there was so much more going on underneath if only I could slow down.

The theme in this book that caught my eye was the fallability of humans. The ranch hand Billy Buck makes several promises concerning ponies on the Ranch. In the first case, he promises that the pony Gabilan will survive an illness. The pony dies. For the first time, Jody sees Billy Buck as fallible and does not trust him completely in the future. Billy Buck himself also comes face to face with his own limits when he realizes that he cannot make promises that are out of his control.

With the second Pony, Jody tries to obtain a promise from Billy Buck that it will be born. Billy Buck finally relents and promises, eventhough he knows better. His hubris results in the sacrifice of a good mare, as Billy Buck must slaughter the mare to deliver the pony with success.

Book Review: Seven Steps on The Writers Path

When I picked up this book, I was looking for some advise on how to become a published writer. But, I didn't want to read a dry manual or a book with a discouraging tone. While this book does not offer addresses and names of agents, it does provide an inside look into the lives of many successful writers. The authors themselves are writers of fiction and self-help books. This book is more a look into the psyche of a writer, and in that respect it was pretty comforting. Nancy and Lynn helped me realize that there is an emotional cycle to writing that I often feel but can't really put into words myself. Like life, once you realize the existance of this cycle you can move from inaction to action more quickly.

The only critism I have for this book is that it dragged on a little long toward the end. The authors probably could have dropped 20-50 pages without compromising the message of the book.