The joys and challenges of AP Literature

Okay, for the first time in a while, I am going to actually write about something approaching relevant. My final semester at Freedom High School is coming to a close, which means that all my classes are wrapping up.

One of my favorite classes has been my school’s AP Lit class, taught by Mr. Tim Fossett. I’ve already talked about this class a bit, and the book “Under the Feet of Jesus” quite a bit as well, but I wanted to hit all the other books today.

I remember about 16 months ago, I did a review of the books we read in the first class I took from him, and I liked that quite a bit, so we’re doing it again today.

The place to start is “Dubliners” by James Joyce. “Dubliners” is more of a collection of short stories than a legit novel. It was occasionally a bit challenging, but on the heels of “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” I was relatively prepared for the occasionally muddled but ultimately fruitful writing.

I thought the stories “Eveline” and “The Dead” were particularly good. There were some stories like “A Painful Case” where I just wanted Joyce to get to the point already, but I think “Dubliners” is very much worth reading.

None of the stories were too, too cheerful, but they were all meaningful in their own way.

We also read “Mrs. Dalloway,” written by Virginia Woolf, who did not like “Ulysses” (by Joyce) ironically. “Mrs. Dalloway” was the best book we read.

A lot of my classmates did not love this one too much though: “This book is so boring,” “Who cares about this rich British lady,” and “I hate this stupid book” were oft-repeated phrases, but these complaints ceased by the end of the novel because it’s very, very good.

I’ve heard that “Mrs. Dalloway” is much more “accessible” than “Portrait or Dubliners,” which I’ve always interpreted as “you’re too dumb to understand the smart stuff so take the dumber version,” but it is true that “Dalloway” is more accessible.

Accessibility aside, there is a genuine depth to “Mrs. Dalloway” that I really enjoyed. The perspective shifts that Woolf kept employing were entertaining, and, as lame as it sounds, it felt like I was watching a TV show.

Also, the optimistic tone of the novel at its close made me feel good, so there’s that.

“Middlesex” was an excellent book, but I was mad the entire time I was reading it, so that detracted from the experience.

“Middlesex” is a 525-page book where so much stuff happens, and I was tasked with reading the entire thing over spring break and doing a detailed review (11,000 words at conclusion), and I was … frustrated about that assignment.

Once I got past that, I was able to enjoy this book. This book is just really odd, but the writing is absolutely spectacular.

It’s about an intersex male who is raised female for much of his life, which is a creative premise to say the least. The writing was so good and convincing that I was pretty much 100% sure that the author had to be intersex themselves because everything was so vivid and fluid. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that is worth your time.

“Passing” is a book by Nella Larsen. It is about two black women who can pass as white in 1920s America. One woman chooses to live as black most of the time, while the other completely passes over.

People in my class deeply loved this one, and I was sort of fine with it I guess, but towards the end, the book adds a really interesting dimension that I enjoyed.

Here are other books and poems that we read that I could not recommend enough:

“Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard is another weird one we read. It’s a play, so reading it is not technically correct, but I still enjoyed it. That said, “Arcadia” is not as good as it thinks it is … no offense Mr. Fossett.

“How to Read Literature Like a Professor” is basically a textbook. I could understand if that was an automatic no, but if you want to learn how to read better, this is the book for you. I could not recommend reading through it enough, as it will improve your media literacy so much.

“On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” is a poem by Keats that I liked quite a bit. It’s about a new translation of old Greek works by Homer, so that’s kind of super boring, but once you get past the topic, the poem is excellent. Also, it will take you 30 seconds to read.

Out of all of these and putting “Under the Feet of Jesus” aside, I think “Mrs. Dalloway” was the best work we read all year. You should 100% read it.