Death of an Outsider & The Tale of Puddn'head Wilson

118 pages

This is the first Mark Twain book I've read since high school.

It was interesting.

According to the author, it started out as a farce and ended up being a tragedy. He says it was actually 2 stories in one.

I have to admit, I don't understand the title.
Yes, it is a tragedy, but the tragedy part did not involve Pudd'nhead Wilson. In fact, he ended up being the hero. Neither is Puddn'head one of the main character. *shrugs* Maybe I'm missing something. I don't know.

This book is definitely NOT politically correct. It was hard to read in some places- both because of the content, and because of the dialect. It made me laugh. It made me angry. It is a good story.

It involves two babies being raised by a slave named Roxy.
Roxy is only 1/16th black. Her skin is white. Her son's skin is white.
Roxy cares for her son, and her master's son.
The two boys look like twins.
Roxy comes up with a plan to switch them so her son will never be sold, and hopefully will be able to stay with her.
After the many sacrifices she makes for her son, he turns out to be horrible.
He betrays in the worse way.

There is much more to the story than that, but I don't want to give anything away.

The book includes a duel, fingerprinting (which was apparently a new science at the time), cat burglary, palm reading, murder, and the phrase "he needed killing." lol



Death of an Outsider - M.C. Beaton

148 pages

"Nobody in the Scottish town of Cnothan had much liked William Mainwaring. The abrasive Englishman rubbed everyone the wrong way. And now that he's been murdered, nobody seems to mind. Constable Hamish Macbeth happens to be on temporary duty in Cnothan when the killer strikes, and now, like it or not, he's got to solve the crime and bring the killer to justice. But the closed-mouthed locals seem to be hiding many secrets. And as Hamish slowly pieces together a tale of illicit romance, secret vices, real-estate swindles and witchcraft, he begins to wonder if he will soon be joining Mainwairing ."

I liked this book. M.C. Beaton makes the setting and characters come alive. The town of Cnothan is a very bleak, depressing sort of place. I felt almost as homesick as Hamish did for Lochdubh.

This book was written in the 80s and it is very evident. There are references to Reagan, Gorbachev, Margaret Thatcher, AIDS, and more. Descriptions of clothing includes large shoulder pads in dresses! I think that's a fashion trend we'd all like to forget. lol

Currently Reading: "The Help"
2010 total: 11