To start, I think
Eat, Pray, Love should maybe have stopped at Eat. It was pure joy to imagine going to Italy for months on end with the single-minded idea that your purpose is simply to enjoy the food, learn a beautiful language and take a nap every day. Plus, it looked like author Elizabeth Gilbert had a sense of humor and humility and so what if she was a little annoying from time to time. I mean, everyone gets on your nerves after a few days of travel, right?
When I mentioned to others that I was reading the book, though, I was unprepared for how many people h-a-t-e-d it. This was unusual. Especially for a book with "Pray" and "Love" in the title. How bad could it be? But K from college asked me if I was listening to it (nope, just reading it), and then said I would want to kill myself if I heard this woman's whining voice for just five minutes. "And when she goes to the ashram and she's scrubbing the floor, you'll just want to start screaming at your iPod."
"I couldn't believe how self-absorbed she was," said one woman I don't know very well (and who probably thinks I'm really self-absorbed because that hadn't even occurred to me at that point in the book). "I had to stop reading," said another. Man. I thought the author was funny, but then I was still in the "Eat" phase.
In "Pray," in India, I thought it was pretty cool to spend a lot of time in silence and have a guru and all, and I could actually envision myself doing this some day, although my 'monkey mind' would require a lot more training before I wouldn't feel like an absolute fraud. And truthfully, the idea of spending my days scrubbing the floor endlessly actually does appeal to me, as does folding laundry and moving boxes from here to there and back again. I need the mental r-e-s-t after all.
But then "Love" in Indonesia. Stop by on vacation a few years early, meet a medicine man and then tell him you'll be back in a couple of years. It could happen. But this was the most suspicious part - as she ended up f-a-l-l-i-n-g in love, and then come to find out, they got married and it's the subject of her next book. I dunno. Plus she seemed to give herself a ton of credit for not sleeping with anyone for a year (clap clap clap i guess). Clarification: she did not marry the medicine man, but another guy.
Anyway, I liked the way the book was organized, according to prayer beads in sections of three's and how it is all linked to the Catholic rosary. Good stuff, and I do love symmetry and order. But in the end, ** out of *****, and not just because I'm jealous that she got a friggin' book contract just for being whiny (and often funny) and goofing off for a year. How do I get that gig?
Now earlier I had said I was reading The Long Walk Home by Will North (because I liked the cover) but I didn't think I would finish it because it was a little too romance novel-y for me. Plus, it was written by a guy but from a woman's point of view, and um, I just can't take that seriously. (I'm sexist that way, especially when we're dealing with what a woman thinks is h-o-t.) But I DID finish it, mainly because I needed a counterpoint to Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & INcredibly Close book about a very interesting little kid whose dad died in 9/11. (More on that later.)
Now, clearly, the author of
The Long Walk Home was a little more interested than I was in raising sheep. I mean, jeez, I think I could now deliver a lamb based on the details he provided, and clearly he is an American who wishes he was Welsh - I can almost feel his itchy sweater giving me hives from here. He gives all indications of being a Celtic wanna-bee. Which is somehow discouraging to me. All the same, when he introduces the daughter to the mix and how the mother has to navigate through her daughter's love life on top of her own "unexpected feelings" plus the DDT poisoning that has made an invalid out of her husband, I thought it was getting halfway interesting. The author does resolve everything satisfactorily and credibly.
But p.s. that is also a little too much detail about hypothermia, buddy, and just maybe, I woulda kicked the guy off the ledge just to get rid of him for good, poisoned or not. (** out of *****) p.p.s. this Will North is probably one of those guys who had a crush on you and you wished you loved him (cause he's so sensitive and you could always count on his endless love) but instead you dump him and go for the bad boy.
Now, I liked this kid Oskar Schell in
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close very much. He reminds me a bit of
Owen Meany, John Irving's creation and one of my all-time favorite characters. Quirky doesn't begin to cover it. His use of "What The?", his letters to Stephen Hawking, his "quest" to find the lock to a key he's found, his forthright 'can I kiss you' to an attractive older woman - it's brilliant. I am also glad to see someone writing about 9/11 and including all the bits that I have thought and wondered to myself over the years. And also, in the end, I am glad to feel like Oskar Schell will be alright.
What ISN'T alright with me is the juxtaposition of the grandmother's story and the whole bombing of Dresden thing. How much tragedy and unbearable suffering can one book offer? The grandfather is struck dumb and can't speak. TRAGIC. He marries the grandmother because she is the sister of the woman he loved and lost in Dresden. EVEN WORSE. Holey moley. ENOUGH! I need a little more redemption in mankind.
Aside from that, I think the book should be required reading in high school. (**** out of *****) Along with
The Kite Runner. I can see the syllabus now.
Which brings me to Bob Schieffer's
This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV audiobook. I enjoyed this very much - as his career basically spans my lifetime and I recognize all the "players." Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, etc. The guy l-o-v-e-s politics, and that alone is interesting to me, as I thoroughly hate politics and can't imagine the fascination. But it was interesting to me in the same way Charlie Wilson's War was interesting to me, that is, public perception versus reality. How people are always looking to believe in something. How images are manipulated. Fascinating stuff.
I don't know why, but it's comforting to have people like old Bob around. I know, I know, he's kind of hokey and old-fashioned, but he seems trustworthy.
From a technical standpoint, I can't believe how quickly they pulled stories together - how fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants it all was/is. All Bob's experiences with the various presidents - I liked hearing all that stuff, and it confirms, as apolitical as I am, that Gerald Ford is my favorite underrated president. He pardoned Nixon and in effect doomed his own political career for an unpopular decision made for the good of the country. Plus I always loved Betty.
Bizarrely, I had no idea how many reporters were from Texas. This cracks me up, as Yankees generally think they invented the world.
Anyway, Bob starts with President Johnson and ends with 9/11. Well-told, good pace and interesting, although I didn't much care about CBS and network battles. Sounds too much like work. (*** out of *****)
At the same time, I was listening to
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon. Obviously the author is gay, as any hot scene between gay people had fireworks out the kazoo, and any straight scene went something like this: "He kissed her. The next morning..."
60ish man is having a 'spot of bother' or going a little crackers, convinced that eczema is cancer and tries to cut it off with scissors. Meanwhile, his wife of 30 years is having an affair with his old officemate, and their daughter is getting remarried, this time to a guy they are all convinced is from the wrong side of the tracks, despite the fact that they are far from being on the right side of the tracks.
(The fiancee's accent is very northern England, which I guess is a bad thing if you are from southern England). The wildcard is the gay brother, who can't manage to tell his partner he loves him and subsequently loses him over a row about going to the sister's upcoming wedding.
It's all about love and families of course, and how you never quite get what you need from them all the time and how that is okay in the end. The bloke that the sister marries is great - the wedding scene is tremenously well done. This book is from the same guy who wrote
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time...
Hope that wasn't too long. Up next: Do-over by Robin Hemley; When You Are Engulfed by Flames by David Sedaris; and What Are You Optimistic About by John Brockman. Over and out.
