{"id":19042,"date":"2020-02-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19042"},"modified":"2020-02-25T09:01:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T17:01:04","slug":"new-book-offers-cultural-journey-falls-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/02\/19\/new-book-offers-cultural-journey-falls-flat\/","title":{"rendered":"New book offers cultural journey, falls flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect when I started reading Martha C. Franks\u2019\u00a0Books Without Borders:<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>Homer, Aeschylus, Galileo, Melville, and Madison Go to China<\/i>.\u00a0The book is Franks\u2019 account of teaching the liberal arts to high-school students in Beijing from 2012 to 2014.<\/p>\n

Guided on a cultural journey of Western literature through discussions and dialogues, we learn of the high-achieving Chinese students attending Franks\u2019 classes. The interactions and reactions of the students to the literature taught in class are interesting, but I find the depth of their characterizations flat and in need of emotional development, which would help the reader feel more invested in the book. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The book, centred mainly around the classroom and the students, is a well-written personal narrative that flows with lyrical prose carrying Franks\u2019 narrative. At other times, Franks goes on a tangent to put in context a memory to support the narrative of the book. Sometimes it works, but other times these tangents become distracting and unnecessary, and they occasionally made me ask how many more pages were left to the end of the book.<\/p>\n

This brings me to the question of who is reading this book\u2014who is her audience? I wasn\u2019t quite sure if she is writing for her peers or for those who think the liberal arts aren\u2019t as valuable as the maths and sciences.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t like the book. It\u2019s helpful in how it explains through each of the chapters the importance of the liberal arts to the students; each chapter focuses on a specific humanity to show how especially important it is to the educational system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

When I first started reading Books without Borders<\/i> I found myself wondering what was next. I wanted to know more about these students and why they think the way they do.<\/p>\n

But as I kept reading, all I wanted to know was how long before I reached the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect when I started reading Martha C. Franks\u2019\u00a0Books Without Borders:\u00a0Homer, Aeschylus, Galileo, Melville, and Madison Go to China.\u00a0The book is Franks\u2019 account of teaching the liberal arts to high-school students in Beijing from 2012 to 2014. Guided on a cultural journey of Western literature through discussions and dialogues, we learn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,248],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-19-2020"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t