i'm so happy for you

Went on a vacation to Alaska last week! But I'm back.

I finished "The Brothers K"! Finally! It's not the kind of book everyone will love - if you are baseball nut, you will love it more than life, I'm sure. But it takes a certain amount of indulging the author as he goes into long detailed baseball digressions. It's a sprawling family saga and I got impatient with the languid pacing. I wanted something to happen! But I'm glad I stuck through it. The ending pierced my heart with its last image and I felt sad and hopeful and satisfied. The writing is very clever - a child observes that a crazy man has eyes like ketchup and mustard mixed together - but he needed an editor with a chainsaw. I think he got so caught up in the big ideas he was exploring (about religion and Indian philosophy and the purpose of war, etc) that the narrative drive just sat there. Another line that sticks out is a Vietnam soldier reflecting that what he was really defending was the innocence and sweetness of the people back home.

I also read "Hell is Other Parents" by Deborah Copagen Kogan, a group of essays about modern parenting. I like her writing but there was a certain element that rubbed me the wrong way. She makes life choices - living in an expensive city, having a baby after her other kids are nearly preteens, making a long drive with a toddler, sharing her postpartum room - and then complains about it. Several times, I wanted to say to her - what did you expect? Here in reality, this is what we deal with. Own the consequences!

And I read "The Liar's Club" by Mary Karr, a memoir about child abuse. I think I've overdosed on this genre - Angela's Ashes, Falling Leaves, The Glass Castle. It's well-written and the author went through a lot. I had no greater insight. The Glass Castle by Walls captured me much more as I struggled to understand why her parents were choosing to live on the streets. I still think about Jeanette Walls' brother sleeping under a blow-up raft to stay dry under a leaky roof.



In Anchorage, I picked up "Crossing Washington Square" by Joanne Rendell. How I wanted to love this book! The premise is about two literature professors in a love triangle - sounds scrumptious to an English major like myself. And yet it was cliched and stilted from the start with paper doll characters. I felt the same way about "The Professors' Wives Club" so I don't know why I bought this book. I think I really liked the coat on the cover.



Also on vacation, I read "I'm So Happy for You" by Lucinda Rosenfeld. Here, the premise seemed offputting as described in reviews - the dark side of friendship, the spite and jealousy that binds women together. But the book was utterly delightful, daring and hilarious and joyous. I was laughing out loud, clutching my pearls in horror and having way too much fun with its satirical humor. I was cracking up at a scene where a rigid federal prosecutor and pothead slacker debated the "war on terror." One odd thing was how often the characters emailed each other. It seemed they didn't pick up a phone at all.


As a palate cleanser after "The Brothers K" 600-something pages, I am reading "What Do You Do All Day?" by Amy Scheibe. Then I'm excited to read "Body and Soul" by Frank Conroy. And "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier and "Rameau's Niece" by Cathleen Schine.