What We’re Reading

William Shakespeare, King Lear. King Lear is one of the great, late, tragedies by William Shakespeare. Set in a fictionalized pre-Roman Britain, King Lear, near his death, divides his kingdom among his daughters. Due to flattery, he banishes his most loved daughter, Cordelia, which slowly spirals Lear into madness and tragedy. But one of the more humorous aspects of Shakespeare is how he embeds irony and comedy into the play to focus on serious moral and philosophical questions. The Fool, the for instance, speaks the truth. King Lear, despite his growing insanity, eventually is proven right about the conspiracy against him—especially with regard to Regan and Goneril. The seriousness of the tragedy also invites us, as readers, to consider what is truth, what is false, and how it is manifested in the world. Are those who appear foolish and insane always foolish and insane? And just because someone appears professional and serious, what might they be hiding in spheres of the fraudulent and immoral? These, of course, are questions we must contend with in our own lives.

~ Paul Krause

Richard Scott Morehead, The Master of Robeson County. My bias holds true to The Master of Robeson County, because I know both the author and the location of the novel personally. Without blatantly interfering with Mr. Morehead’s subliminally, the audience, through the novel, can pinpoint late teen and early twenty life experiences. The struggle, pain, and excitement of memories during this time is argued in The Master of Robeson County, and readers who have difficulty letting go of these years will find themselves at a crossroad. “What should we remember?”, “what should we forget?”, and “what should we ignore” are all good questions readers should ask themselves during the course of this novel. The Master encourages readers to not only answer these questions but to argue with themselves as they answer them, ultimately forcing them to move on and develop into the true selves they longed to become. (Follow along for an upcoming book review.)

~ Sarah Tillard

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