The Mailman Ran Over My Head

If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head.

With an opening sentence like that, I just had to keep reading, and, although not quite finished, I have not been disappointed.  This is our book discussion selection for November and I am anticipating a spirited discussion.

Why?  The humor in this book is build on stereotypes.  It's not malicious humor in my opinion, but because the people making dumb moves after dumb moves happen to be minorities, the opportunity to offend and be offended is there.  Poor Edgar is a half-breed - so you can see why this might rankle some.  His home life is awful.  As a matter of fact, when his head is crushed by the mailman's truck, his mother doesn't even get off the couch.  Again, you can see how this deepens the problem.

Edgar, this little survivor, tells us his story mainly in first person;  at times, when he is repeating things he heard about his life during his three month coma, or when discussing events in his seven year old philosopher persona, he flips into third person.  I can see where this would come off as an inconsistency to some while others would consider it a fascinating technique worthy of examination.

During Edgar's hospital stay, he room with three colorful characters who become a pseudo-family, which is good since he learns early on that his family can't or won't take him back.  In short order, he lands in an a home for orphan Indians where the discipline techniques are harsh.  Eventually, he is taken in by a dysfunctional Morman family.

Years ago, a friend serving in Nam (that tells you just how man years ago) sent me a copy of his favorite book ever - The Beastly Beatitudes of Balthazar B. by J. P Donleavy.  My memory of that book is that is is filled with unmentionable circumstance and irreverent comments.  Re-reading books isn't something I do often, but I did order a copy of BBB, and will see if the similarities are there or if I have misremembered (is that a word?)

I'll let you know if my predictions about our discussion are correct, but you will have to wait a couple weeks for that.  Usually, I am whipping through our discussion title the week before we meet.  For some reason, I am waaaaay ahead this time.

My Nebraska email ppal and I have been having a discussion about Night Film.  Perhaps he will write a little something about it for a future blog.  Steve and I try to compare "Castle" notes each Tuesday morning, but now "The Blacklist" has caused some interference.  So many choices.

HAR update....my musical and tweener are done.  Other directors are nearing the finish line as well,  We get together in early November to read the scripts and put together the order of the show.  Such fun!

Thanks for stopping by.

Saturday Moon...over Copps

Yup...over Copps.  Grocery shopping and shooting the moon.  On a Saturday night.  If that shouts LOSER to you, I would not argue.  Who grocery shops on Saturday night?  I can tell you.  No one.  If there were others gazing indecisively at the Stouffer frozen dinners, or perhaps sampling the large selection of grapes - red, red seedless, green, green seedless, black, black seedless, red globe and organic - offered by our fine produce manage, Brad, I did not see them.  I was alone.  Not lonely, just alone.

Can't complain about the weekend though because Friday night was book group.  Have I told you how much I enjoy and respect the women in this group?  This month, we chose to watch a move, The Impossible, and had a solid discussion.  At some point our chatter always drifts back to books we have read in the past, and generally settles on the titles we most disagreed upon - The Shipping News and The Life of Pi.  

I can't even define for you why The Shipping News annoyed so many of us.  For me, it was the over abundance of similes and metaphors.  My preference is for more straightforward language.  Symbolism is another story.  For me, symbols provide mystery as well as giving each reader an opportunity to discover their own significance behind the words.    That's why  The Life of Pi worked for me.  Even though we dealt with that title months ago, again last Friday, we found ourselves debating whether or not the tiger was real.  Personally, it didn't matter to me; what mattered was that for Pi, the tiger was real.  This is where it gets a little fuzzy though.  Was he physically real, or just a reality manifested by Pi for survival?  If the later is true, then was the tiger real or not?  I suppose that all ties into where you, as a reader, are philosophically and/or spiritually.  It's a great discussion and I guess we will return to it again at some point.

A new topic turned up on Friday, out of the blue - a worthy topic, debatable.  How do you define a reader?  It began with a comment about someone's colleague who finds little value in his college students reading Harry Potter and similar titles.  Again, I straddled the issue, making a case for escapist reading, as opposed to reading for growth, inspiration and challenge.  Is one purpose more valuable or correct than the other? Yes, 50 Shades of Grey entered this discussion.   I won't revisit that topic; suffice it to say most people in our group have read it and have not sought out other mommy porn titles.  Is that because they are "readers"?  You decide.

What am I reading?  I did not finish the 591 page beast as I had planned.  My bookmark is currently nestled in at page 437.  Night Film has taken a few twists in the last 100 pages, even referencing Stanley Kubrick who undoubtedly was the inspiration for the main (yet never seen) character Stanislaus Cordova.  There have been secret ceremonies and allusions to ...opps...not going there.  I don't want to give too much away.  This book moves very quickly.  If you plan to read it give yourself a concentrated amount of time time.  You cannot walk away for even a day, and pick up without being a little lost.  The characters travel fast, collect and compile information, and then jump right into another quagmire.  I am having tons of fun with this book, but I will confess to being spooked by a few house sounds yesterday while I was lost amid mansions, antique shops, and underground fellowships.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll see you at the grocery store.

Thanks for the Suggestions

My original plan was to tell you all about last weeks trade show, but that will have to wait. Instead, I just have to talk about two books that have been getting rave reviews from customers. Several months ago my friend Marlene said " I just read a book that I know you will like. It's about a bookstore." That sort of undersold the book, but Marlene was very right. Backing up a little...one of my favorite tween books is the first in a four books series by Trevor Stewart, The Mysterious Benedict Society. A group of kids, each with a specific, savant like talent, is swept away (OK, they're kidnapped) and taken to the Benedict Society where they are told they must pool their skills to solve a mystery. However, they first have to figure out what the mystery is. 

 All the while I was reading it I kept thinking that I would love a similar books for adults...and then voila (absent accent since Blogger won't let me put one in) - Penumbra appears. The book indeed does take place in a bookstore, but no one is actually allowed to buy books there. Instead, the store functions as a sort of clearing house for seekers of knowledge on an age old myth. The book is populated with techno-geeks, code breakers, paranoid eccentrics, and uber intellectuals.(again please excuse the missing umlaut). The fable-esque , didactic ending didn't dampen the search that drew me into the lives of the each character.

Wayne and Kerry, along with a myriad of literary critics have been making noises about this book. I can't remember the last time I read a 600 page book that wasn't required for a course of some sort. Gone With the Wind perhaps - gave me bragging rights in junior high school, I guess. To be honest, I resisted reading Night Film because the author's first novel, Special Topics in Calamity Physics has that P word in the title, and I don't do science. But I caved under pressure, and several phone calls from Wayne asking if I had started and/or finished the book yet. After weeks of lying, I figured it was time to accept the challenge and begin reading. That lying thing, and the fact that Wayne dropped off his Advance Reader copy with another insistent litany of "should's" threw me into guilt overdrive. 

 What a roller coaster. I am really not sure what the book is about yet, or where it is leading, but the hooks are strong and the plot flies. I get the feeling that every word, every picture and every scanned document needs to be studied for clues, and so this book my be a time commitment. Ashley Cordova, daughter of cult filmmaker dies of an apparent suicide, but journalist Scott McGrath isn't convinced. McGrath, determined to rehabilitate his career which was destroyed by the Stanislas Cordova dark and twisted contingency, finds himself tangled in secrecy and danger. I can't tell yet if he is motivated by revenge, or whether the hard core journalist in him as been lying dormant for far too long and he simply wants to discover something he believes others may have missed. Entwined with the prose are facsimile police reports, crime scene photos, and text transcripts.

 I only work until 2:00 today. Guess what I'll be doing all afternoon.

 Thanks for stopping by.