Stone Reader-Movie Part 2

The second part of the movie opens with a pan of the Arizona terrain. It is a beautiful landscape, and an extremely scenic spot. They are describing Vietnam to the narrator’s son.

Later, the narrator describes the book as having two main themes, both of which are timeless. They are: someone finding themselves, and rebellion. These two themes seem to be at the center of most teen angst books, and even in a great deal of movies. They provide a storyline in which they can show a person growing up and turning into an adult while, “finding themselves.” As far as the rebellion, I can’t tell you how many times there is a teen “rebel” in a book or movie, causing drama and acting out. I believe this is one of the most overdone and boring theme a character or book can have.

In this part of the movie, we are also told that the book has been out of print for 20 years. This is an extremely long time, and it is unbelievable that the narrator has been able to find out as much as he has giving how long ago the book stopped being printed. In this part of the movie we are shown a lot of interaction between the author, Dow, and the narrator. He finally tracks him down and goes to visit him. His goal of the trip is to try to get “The Stones of Summer” back into print. He even meets with an agent in order to get his professional opinion and help.

When Dow and the narrator are discussing the book, Dow says that each page of the book was a poem, and that the novel in its entirety is a poem. Not necessarily that it has rhyming or anything of that nature, but because of it’s language and overall essence. We are told that as a child Dow read Sherlock Holmes and the bible. He loves Shakespeare, because he really enjoys genre tragedies. When talking about Shakespeare, it is clear that he is very passionate about it. He also tells us that he believes that, “books are sacred objects.”

Towards the end of the movie, we are told that the narrator’s father dies of diabetes. He also tells us that after this, he considers stopping the movie all together, but decides not to because then no one would find out about the “stones of summer”. In the very end of the movie, we are told that Barnes and Noble agrees to sell the book and have it in print again. Therefore, overall, the narrator’s goal was a success and all of his hard work and persistence paid off.