Desert Island Books

K W posted about Must Reads in Book Blogs. I pose a similar yet different question: what are your three desert island books? There are many books I love and that I qualify as a must read, but only a select few that retain their freshness no matter how many times I read them. My three choices are all fiction despite how much I enjoy non-fiction and have been on a non-fiction binge the last six months. There are subtle nuances to be discovered in fiction books - I'm talking specifically literature, not pulp fiction - in every read. By contrast, I'm not sure how much is to be gained from non-fiction, unless it's philosophy, after a finite number of readings. At least that's how I feel about, but it's only my HO and I'm sure others will differ. Anyway, here are my three choices:

Hamlet, who is a dithering character up until the end of the story when he finally gets it:

There is special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. Since no man, of aught he leaves, knows what is't to leave betimes, let be.

With this line, in which he cites the Biblical passage that God cares even for the fallen sparrow, Hamlet becomes the consummate man of action and a fully realized and alive character. We do not know our fate or the plan that God has for us; therefore, we should just “let be.” Contrast this to Anse Bundren who uses the same passage to justify his lack of action: “and I know that Old Marster will care for me as for ere a sparrow that falls.” Hamlet is the much more satisfying character, especially more so when he dies in the fencing match with Laertes. In this sequence, when he gains all only to lose his life, he becomes the true tragic character and a hero for the ages, in turn elevating the play to a timeless classic.

Night by Elie Wiesel. Granted, I'm partial because I'm Jewish and my father was a Holocaust survivor, but I never tire of this story. It portrays the story of another Holocaust survivor. It is not an easy or a pleasant read - far from it - but in depicting the horrors of the Holocaust, it tells a story that must be told over and over again lest we forget.

The Brothers Karamazov, which uses religion in a different way in the Grand Inquisitor chapter. In this chapter, Christ comes back and is arrested and sentenced to die by the Church, but not because the Cardinal believes him to be delusional. The Church arrests him because they know he's Christ and too much of a threat to them and to the average man, who cannot live life outside of society as Christ preaches. We need the structure and guidance of the Church and need to know where our daily bread is coming from. It's a damning critique of religion from an author who was a nihilist.

Those are mine. What are yours?