The Cricket on the Hearth – Charles Dickens

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

Desmond has read it.

Thoughts:

I don’t mind the occasional domestic novel (Alcott’s Little Women, for example). This one, however, was overly simplistic, even taken by itself and not compared to Dickens’s other works. It does suffer enormously by comparison. For instance, the antagonist experiences an instant, unbelievable transformation from grumpy miser to lonely old man, and the instant change is completely out of the blue, unlike the change in Scrooge from Dickens’s Christmas Carol. If I were to say one good thing about the book, it would be that Dickens continues in his solid command of the English language; he knows how to turn a phrase. But his talents are better displayed elsewhere.

What Katy Did – Susan Coolidge

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

There are two Kate-centric episodes that reference this book. One is called “What Kate Did,” and a later one is called “What Kate Does.”

Thoughts:

Overly moralistic. Kids don’t read to be preached at, but that’s what this does. Granted, they’re good morals for kids to learn, but they should be presented in a more palatable/entertaining format if you’re going to call it fiction. (Take the Berenstain Bears, for instance. They can manage even the most awkward subjects.)

Island – Aldous Huxley

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

The main character, Will Farnaby, is out sailing and crashes his boat on a strange island. The book opens with him suddenly waking up, all ragged and dirty, in the middle of the woods, just like Jack in the opening of Lost. DHARMA also built the Pala Ferry, and Pala is the name of Huxley’s fictional island.

Fun Fact: Aldous Huxley also wrote a short story called “Jacob’s Hands” about a man named Jacob who finds he has a healing gift, and he first offers his services at a church in LA.

Thoughts:

Though Farnaby gets more likeable as the book goes on – morphing from a weak-willed philanderer to someone who will stand up for his beliefs – the narrative itself is thoroughly laced with dry, plotless passages featuring the made up philosophy/theology of Pala. The lengthy last chapter is the part that would hold the most potential interest (the invasion of the island), but unfortunately, Farnaby’s high through the whole chapter.

The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

This is the title of a Kate-centric episode. The little boy referred to in the title is Aaron, who Kate is raising.

In the book, the prince lives on asteroid B-612, and Danielle Rousseau’s research vessel is called the Bésixdouze, which is B-six-twelve in French.

Also, this story is about a pilot who makes an emergency landing in the desert and meets this weird kid, and ironically, the aviator author later took off on a flight and was never heard from again. The wreckage of his plane was finally found in 2003, but without a body. The mystery lives on.

Thoughts:

The prince was just a little too unbelievable for my taste. A little too out there. Not at all relatable to the target audience except for his overabundance of imagination. He’s too perfect but condescending – instantly sorry for all the grown-ups he meets because of their vices (like the “tippler,” who I was surprised to find in a kids’ book… I guess authors had more latitude for that stuff back in the day).

Inevitably, I have to compare his reaction to Sara in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s A Little Princess, which is a story about a girl barely older than the little prince who has a similar outlook on life. Even though Sara is more perfect than your average schoolgirl, she still has a wider range of emotions than the little prince. Sometimes she gets upset or angry even. And when she feels sorry for someone like the prince does, it’s not just an abstract emotion. She does something about it. She cheers up her fellow servant with stories. She shares her food with equally hungry children. Everything may work out for her in the end, but she’s a whole lot more likeable than Saint-Exupery’s prince.

The Glass Menagerie – Tennessee Williams

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

When studying screencaps, I found this book on Ben’s shelf near VALIS.

Thoughts:

There’s barely a plot, and it tries too hard to be artsy. (The premise is that the narrator is looking at the events through the distorting lens of memory, so that’s an excuse for weird proportions, lighting, pictures, etc.) Yes, the kids have parental issues like every single character on Lost, but that tiny little connection doesn’t help.

Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

This book is on Ben’s shelf. There’s a more indirect, or circumstantial reference in the mouse experiment. In the book, Algernon the mouse has experimental brain surgery before Charlie (the first human subject). When Algernon regresses and dies, this foreshadows the end for Charlie. In Lost, Daniel experiments on a mouse named Eloise’s brain. She gets a brain hemorrhage, just like later humans exposed to similar conditions. But some of the humans survive. Go, Desmond!

Thoughts:

It’s interesting as a social commentary. If you want to know about discrimination against those with special needs, this is probably the best-known book on the subject. Only, I didn’t actually enjoy it. It pushes the cause of acceptance, and it even has a storyline and style that I could have found not only realistic but compelling, but Keyes just tries too hard.

Dark Horse – Tami Hoag

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

This book is on Jack’s office shelf.

Thoughts:

The former cop is full of trauma and depression then ends up solving crimes anyway because of some lingering sense of duty. Is there a setup more cliché than this? Didn’t think so. Also, I found the “mature child” who finds her pretty uninspired, too. And there were way too many people to keep track of.

After All These Years – Susan Isaacs

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

This book is by Sawyer’s bed in the Swan hatch as he’s recovering from his injuries. The book pertains more to Kate than Sawyer. Like Rosie in the book, Kate is on the lam after a murder charge… though unlike Rosie, Kate is actually guilty. Both of them get help from a (now-married) childhood friend/love interest named Tom. I don’t know how this new book got into the old DHARMA station, but fans speculate about it being periodically restocked. Or maybe the Losties brought the book in with them.

Thoughts:

Trashy romance/mystery novel. The only thing I can say is that Isaacs knows how to turn a phrase.

Epic of Gilgamesh

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

Locke works on a crossword puzzle in the Swan hatch. Question 42 is “Enkidu’s friend” Locke writes “Gilgamesh” as the answer (though Lostpedia guesses that this is incorrect) The Epic of Gilgamesh centers on an ancient hero who, after some adventures with Enkidu, watches his friend die and then goes on a quest for immortality. Lost, meanwhile, has three immortal-ish characters: Jacob, the Man in Black, and Richard. By the end, none of them are immortal anymore, but, hey, they had a good run. Oh, and Gilgamesh never gets that immortality, either.

Thoughts:

The text, being so fragmented, is hard to read. Then it repeats itself extensively. As a result, I went back and forth between not knowing what was happening to knowing far too well. I guess the characters want everyone on the same page, because when they tell a story, it’s duplicated at least once, word for word. As fans of ancient literature will know, other cultures use this literary technique, not just the Mesopotamians. I suppose it served them well, but it doesn’t work for a modern audience. That said, it’s a decent adventure, and it’s one of the oldest surviving works of literature, so props for that.

Eleventh Hour – Catherine Coulter

Rating: 2/5

Lost References:

This is one of the books on Jack’s shelf. So far I’m not too impressed with his choice in literature.

Thoughts:

Promising at first, Eleventh Hour opened with some genial (if unoriginal and stereotyped) characters in a tricky situation. Even when Coulter continually flashed back (without warning or transition) to one character’s side-story plotline, I was willing to go along with it. But she never developed the characters further (with the exception of one suspect – Weldon DeLoach – who hardly gets any page time). Worse, she forced the two main characters into a predictable but super-awkward romance. Actually, she was pretty bad writing romance at all. Even two FBI agents in a solidly established marriage just walked around being perfect and thinking about how perfect the other one was. The plot just grew more and more unlikely and coincidental. In the end, I was reading outside, and I found more entertainment in a chipmunk and blackbird fighting for food than I did in this novel. Though advertised as a thriller, it failed to thrill. It just left me thoroughly underwhelmed.