Chang and Eng
Darin Strauss
You might have noticed that I have a tendency to abandon books if I’m not interested by the middle of the first chapter. That happened at first with this book. I got it on someone else’s recommendation, and I think I’m so used to the kind of writing voices I usually choose that it wasn’t immediately gripping. Luckily, I went back to it a little while later. It’s written from the perspective of Eng Bunker, one half of the famous 19th century “siamese twins” for whom the term was named.
Eng is resentful and condescending as he describes their life, from Thailand to the sideshow, to settling down with their wives. It’s not written directly from history, there’s not much information anyway. It’s an imagining of what life would be like if you could never be physically alone. It’s easily the best book I’ve read in a long time.
The Language of God
Francis S. Collins
I’ll be honest, this is another book I didn’t even finish the first chapter of. It’s aimed at non-religious people who are scared of religion because of how unscientific it is. I have a feeling it’s mostly read by religious people who are scared of science. As a scientific and religious person, I just found it sort of condescending. Maybe after page 30 it gets better, but I’m not going to hang around to find out.
Lucky
Gabrielle Bell
I liked this book well enough. I just think I would have liked it more if it was the first of its genre I discovered. I like comics written by ladies just talking about their life as a 20-something. But I’ve come to expect more from them than what Gabrielle Bell is providing. The mundane details don’t add up to an overall message or mood, they are just mundane details. She’s got roommates. She’s indecisive. Nothing really happens. I don’t discount her entirely though. I am also reading The Best American Series: Best American Comics 2007. There’s a selection in there from her, and it comes together much more than this book. It’s just a few pages, but it has a stronger narrative. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this book, but I would be willing to check out some of her newer stuff.
Night
Elie Wiesel
Once, last year, I stayed with a friend for a weekend while her husband was out out of town, to keep her company and ward off robbers. I usually read before bed, so I picked a book of the shelf and sat down to read.
This is what I chose. It’s a man’s memoir of his time in a concentration camp during WWII. He watches families broken down by death and desperation, turning on each other for small scraps of bread. He’s forced to run 40 miles without stopping, and when he does stop, he watches his father die days before his camp is liberated by the allies. It’s a thoroughly engrossing read. I read it straight through one night and then stayed up for another hour just thinking about it. I remember thinking about how it reminded me of 1984, except for that it really happened. and not just to one person, but to so many others who didn’t live to tell their tale, or couldn’t bring themselves to write it down.
I remember several years ago I had a friend who was never very interested in school or books, and in passing, it came up that she had no idea what the holocaust was. I was taken aback that she had never learned about it, but now I wonder much I really know. Sure I know the facts of the era, but I’m not sure that quite cuts it anymore.
Eat Pray Love
Elizabeth Gilbert
Things I can tell you about this book:
There’s some pasta on the cover
That’s about as far as I got. I couldn’t focus, and I got the feeling it was aimed at the “Under the Tuscan Sun” crowd. Based on the cover I think the protagonist eats some carbs and maybe loves up a younger italian man, then prays or visits india and learns she has very deep feelings, and then finally learns to love in a meadow full of flowers. I think my mother picked this up in an airport bookstore.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon
Let me be the first to mention it: This book is long, dudes. At first I was having trouble trying to get into it, but it quickly became engrossing. I didn’t really know what to expect, and it ended up being much sweeter than I had initially envisioned. It chronicles two cousins as they create a comic book empire and struggle to be the American dream they represent. And also I dated Joseph Kavalier once, except for he wasn’t a magician. And existed in real life. And didn’t escape the Nazis in a coffin. But other than that, it was pretty much the same.
Overall, I’d recommend it as at least a library book. But you might have to renew it once before you can really get interested enough to read the whole thing.
Drunk By Noon
Jennifer L. Knox
Let the record show that more often than not, when I am talking about poetry, it is because I am mocking my good friend Pete’s love of poetry. He usually acts hurt and probably slinks home to write a poem about it. But I betray myself upon the discovery of this collection of poems. I picked it up at that giant bookstore in Portland. I read two whole books without buying while i was there, and even though this book was slim enough to read during that time, I could tell I wanted to own it.
The title comes from a song lyric by the Handsome Family:
“If my life was as long as the moon,
I’d still be jealous of the sun.
If my life lasted only one day,
I’d still be drunk by noon.”
I think that about sums up what you’ll find in her work, midwestern sadness and cynicism filtered through a protective coating of humor. I definitely recommend.
