The Scarlet Letter and Other books
I finished The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne a few weeks ago. After beginning it for the EQUIP book club I simply couldn't put it down. I've been meaning to mention it ever since. It's a ripping good yarn, so to speak. It's apparently commonly read in the US, but not so commonly here. I'd recommend it - but I'd also recommend that you read Susannah Macready's notes over at the EQUIP book club, because the way it treats some ideas can be confusing in the errors.
The book actually portrays the Puritans, and the Christianity they supposedly hold to, very badly, and so is in no sense a 'Christian' story. It's also liberally sprinkled with archaic superstitions and some references to witchcraft (though the 19th notions of the integration of body and soul may be closer to the truth than modern medicine allows at times). The lack of grace in the story is greatly disturbing, but it also shines a bright light, in it's own way, on hypocrisy. The one person known to have sinned is labelled and shunned, and the other unknown agent in that same sin goes on being venerated by the townsfolk. But the "hidden" sinner actually feels this keenly, and in one way wishes not to be so hypocritical though they lack the courage to do otherwise, such that the unconfessed sin is ultimately their demise, which is curious to observe. The greatest error in the book is what appears to be the belief that there are some sins for which there is no guarantee of forgiveness, together with some confusion about what (and ultimately towards whom) repentance actually is and what it secures.
But the story is masterfully threaded together and superbly written and the tension mounts till in the end you feel like you can finally exhale. It's a good read and gives you lots to think about along the way - about grace, repentance, social/public punishment etc - even if you have to sort out the good from the bad along the way.
Anyway, I mentioned a while back that I picked up Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro at an op shop, so I was interested to read this review of it via Between Two Worlds. I'm looking forward to reading it (one day!) even more now.