Review of “Reading Lessons” by Carol Atherton”

The Stuff:

In this nonfiction work, British teacher Carol Atherton mulls over fourteen books and plays, and one poem she has taught English students over the years. A single chapter, titled with a tagline, is devoted to each work. An afterword discusses additional modern works that could be added to the reading lists.

Some works, like Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations (“On loyalty, empathy, and social mobility”) and Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess” (“On gender, power and control”), were expected and brought back memories of the days of yore, otherwise known as high school. Others, such as A Kestrel for a Knave (“On learning”) by Barry Hines and Noughts & Crosses (“On seeing things differently”) by Malorie Blackman, I’d never heard of. The last two struck me as more British-centric and less likely to show up in an American curriculum, which, of course, in no way diminishes their value for reading on this side of the Atlantic.

This book is also about being a teacher, particularly an English teacher, and about being a student. Atherton sees the humanities as vulnerable to budget cuts with the current emphasis on STEM subjects. It’s easy to see how important STEM fields are and how training in them will lead to lucrative careers. Her own career is challenging and rewarding.

Thoughts:

I am not now nor have I ever been an English and/or reading teacher. However, I am an inveterate book nerd. And I love conversations with other book nerds. I will read just about anything, even stodgy old English texts. But seriously, this was a lot of fun. An added plus was that the author was open and vulnerable about her own experiences, not only in teaching but in applying to university, for example. It’s almost like you’re talking to a person.

For example, in discussing Macbeth, a play I read in both high school and college and have seen performed several times, Atherton provides an additional dimension by viewing it from Lady Macbeth’s perspective through the lens of childlessness. She is frank about her own struggles with infertility (which, one can safely assume, didn’t involve regicide). This discussion demonstrates the best of what literature can do, IMHO. Even with a play that is so old, so dated, and that I am so familiar with, there is still more to be learned. It can still speak to human experience beyond what its author could have imagined.

I had a lot of fun with this book. I didn’t agree with everything, of course. I will worry when I find someone with whom I do agree on every point. The book A Kestrel for a Knave sounds as depressing as watching Old Yeller or Bambi’s mother get shot or reading Where the Red Fern Grows. Man, just hang a sign that says, “Abandon all hope, ye who love animals.”

This book is not everyone’s cup of tea. By its nature, it tends to center on British works—not that there’s anything wrong with that—and shouldn’t stop anyone outside Great Britain interested in an examination of English-language literature from reading it.


Title: Reading Lessons: An English Teacher’s Love Letter to the Books that Shape Us
Author: Carol Atherton
First published: 2024
Length: nonfiction book