Nothing like getting back into the swing...

It's been a while, to be honest, since i've really devoured a book the way Em usually does. There's all the writing, and of course the kids, and the responsibilities of being a daddy these days that tend to make it a bit difficult to really get involved with a story. This time, though, was a bit different. I picked up "The Orphan Master's Son" the other day (Last Wednesday, to be precise,) and tore through it with the headlong relish of a four-year-old through a plate of Mac 'n Cheese. It was honestly that good, I kid you not...

It won the Pulitzer just a few years ago, so it counts among the more accessible novels to have won the prize, telling the story of Pak Jun Do, a North Korean Jack of all trades who very eloquently introduces us to some of the fascinatingly vague lives of the North Korean people.

Very often, we are presented with a view of Communism that is at its extreme. We think of the revolutions, the bloodshed, and the crappy, barely-drivable cars. We are presented a mishmash of drama that, be honest now, doesn't really educate us much about what Communism is these days, what its failures are, and how frankly impossible it is, operating the way it was intended to, outside the framework of a sociological and economic thought experiment. We simply don't see the lives of the people we assume are entirely oppressed. Rather than screaming at us how unsustainable such a system is, scratching the technical babble into the wall that is the monument to capitalism, the Orphan Master's son presents Communism as a backdrop against which the failures of our own human character are marqueraded. Of course, that's only part of the story...

Pac Jun Do feels like what we all might be in his situation, and perhaps we are. After all, aren't we all struggling in our own way to realize that thing that someone, somewhere called "The American Dream?" His struggle, very much to lay claim to his destiny, to control the course of his own life, does mirror very acutely the American experience today, even if our labors are made in a Capitalist society, rather than a Communist one. It's a beautiful reminder that at the heart, we are very much alike, and should not think of ourselves as quite so distanced from those who live under a different ideology than our own.

Oops!

OK, so I just realized that I am the culprit, the slacker who dropped the ball on this blog, and not my loving hubby as I was assuming. (Ooops!)  A very enthusiastic fan of the blog got on our case the other day, intoning how much she loved reading about our adventures and digs against each other.  This ones for you Val!

Even though it has been 2 years (YIKES) since either one of us blogged, we have still been reading up a storm, although with 2 little ones in the house we are better versed in Kann and Carle than King and Picoult.  

I recently read the book Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, which was a book club selection.  The story follows Clay Jannon as he searches for work in tech-savvy San Fransisco, and stumbles upon Mr. Penubra’s 24 Hour Bookstore, that is looking for a clerk for the overnight shift.  He quickly gets the job, complete with strange job requirements- man the counter in a 24 hour bookstore overnight where no one visits, write down descriptions of everyone who comes into the store and how they are acting, don’t read the books in the stacks in the back; these books are only checked out (yes, lent like a library) by the strangest of customers. 

Of course one day, a friend convinces Clay to inspect one of the books in the back of the store, and it is filled with a strange language nether one of them can decipher.  The mystery deepens as he realizes that these books are checked out in a set sequence, even though they are not shelved linearly.

I don’t want to spoil any more of the story, but it continues with lots of Silicon Valley trickery, a new coded book, and some very Da Vinci Code intrigues!

Now, Sir Donald, I pass the torch back to you!

The Odyssey

So, here we are again, and not much has changed since the last time I wrote. Being the ADULT that I am, I'll refrain from taking exception to my adorable honey's admonition the other day that the dropping of the blog ball was squarely on my shoulders, rather than her own. Neither will I stoop to saying things like:

"Neener, Neener, Neeeeeener!!!"

Because that would be childish.

So I won't.

;)

As for my own reading adventures, I'm just going to come right out and say that they have been less than stellar. I haven't been able to stay interested much in the pulitzer list, so I found myself wandering around the literary cellars looking for a vintage that I could really sink my teeth into.  

I came up with The Odyssey of Homer, and really liked it. I'm glad it wasn't ever on my high school reading list to be honest, I think because now that I'm older, I can actually appreciate it. It's amazing how many stories today derive from that work. 

I took in some Virginia Woolf through "A Room of One's Own," and "Mrs. Dalloway," found and then promptly dispatched my inner feminist, because I'm of the opinion that I would be a better lesbian than she, and I think I might have come to some reasonable understanding as to what the hell was going on in "The Hours." I still think it sucked as contemporary literature; though not nearly as badly as "Beloved."

I finished up Henry James' "The Portrait of a Lady" sometime around when Robbie was born, and found out exactly why H. James is widely thought of as the master of the "Innocent Lady abroad" tale. I was less enthusiastic about "Madame Bovary," but wasn't let down one bit by Flaubert's intricate tickling of the language. One regret: I wish I could have read it in the original french, which I'm sure must be far superior in its own way.

For now, I'm on my way through Sinclair Lewis' "Arrowsmith," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1926. It's a good read, but with the baby taking up my time, and work, I'm afraid the good doctor hasn't gotten the attention he deserves. I'll resolve to do better. Thank you Val!