Halfway There
TALKING POINTS MEMO: I’m just going to say it – so far I have found this book a huge disappointment. The story has done nothing for me, and the writing is downright flat. I've found very little of substance so far.
"So the struggle was not against a human enemy or for victory. The struggle, for those who survived The Day, was to survive the next."
I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS: I have no idea how I would react after a nuclear attack - how I would find food and water, fend for my family, protect us from attacks... but I’m pretty certain I would not choose do any of the following: pay a visit to the library or the bank, host a barbecue, scour the city for liquor and coffee, or make cracks about no longer having to worry about paying child support. The characters reactions to the destruction of most of cities of the country is completely blasé. So little of the plot of this book seems at all plausible to me.
“It was strange, she thought, pedaling steadily, that it should require a holocaust to make her own life worth living.”
Interestingly, Frank also authored a 160 page non-fiction booklet a few years after the publication of “Alas, Babylon” titled “How to survive the H-Bomb and Why”.
Wikipedia has a pretty extensive list of post-nuclear fiction here, and I was surprised to discover I’d only read a few.
I also searched a few different lists of Top Ten Nuclear Disaster movies like this one. Some of the noteworthy:
Mad Max
Superman
Terminator
The Road
Though reading this book has also brought to mind the awesome 1983 Matthew Broderick movie “War Games”:
“Nuclear warfare is a strange game. The only winning move is not to play.”
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday, February 15, 2010
Halfway There: "The Power and The Glory"
This is the second installment in what will be a monthly tackling of each of our book club selections from the perspective of being half finished with the book.
Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory"
TALKING POINTS MEMO: I think this book is just fantastic. The flight of The Whiskey Priest draws you in, and the writing is brilliant. I really like a book that doesn’t hand you everything out front, but gives it to you in pieces, and lets you fill in the gaps. This book has been called Greene’s masterpiece and it is only just over 200 pages. I feel like there are underline-able passages on each page turn. It is that good.
“One mustn’t have human affections – or rather one must love every soul as if it were one’s own child.”
“I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.” Like McCarthy’s characters in “The Road” the two main characters remain nameless. The Lieutenant and The Priest are also a study in contrasts: the flawed but compassionate whiskey priest, and the calculating, brutal lieutenant. The story, of course lends itself to allegory – the journey, spiritual and otherwise. But instead of a journey from A to B, the priest only seems to circle over the same landscape, unable (and/or unwilling) to escape from his duty and destiny. It is easy to see that this book isn’t going to end good for the priest. The question for him, I think, is whether he will maintain what little faith and dignity he has left to him.
“He felt an unwilling hatred of the child ahead of him and the sick woman – he was unworthy of what he carried... ‘Let me be caught soon…Let me be caught.’”
THE SPIN ZONE: One big fat question I have is whether Greene’s ideals as expressed in “Power and Glory” are more Christian, or simply humanitarian. Though The Priest reveals that his aspirations are for personal glory and a posh appointment, at his best, he has a strong desire to administer sacraments to the neediest and most poor people of the areas in which he travels – at his own peril.
“Suddenly and unexpectedly there was agony in the cemetery. They had been used to losing children, but they hadn’t been used to what the rest of the world knows best of all – the hope which peters out. He knew he was in the grip of the unforgivable sin, despair.”
YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN: On the short list of “books I need to read” (yes there is a long list) in no particular order: Let us Now Praise Famous Men, Lonesome Dove, Spook, All Over But the Shoutin’, Reading Lolita in Tehran. I’m also still working on my New Year’s resolution from last year, which is to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winners. I think I’m over halfway there. Books I’m pondering for next book club: Clockwork Orange, Iron Lake, Earth Abides, Dead I Well May Be.
Graham Greene's "The Power and the Glory"
TALKING POINTS MEMO: I think this book is just fantastic. The flight of The Whiskey Priest draws you in, and the writing is brilliant. I really like a book that doesn’t hand you everything out front, but gives it to you in pieces, and lets you fill in the gaps. This book has been called Greene’s masterpiece and it is only just over 200 pages. I feel like there are underline-able passages on each page turn. It is that good.
“One mustn’t have human affections – or rather one must love every soul as if it were one’s own child.”
“I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.” Like McCarthy’s characters in “The Road” the two main characters remain nameless. The Lieutenant and The Priest are also a study in contrasts: the flawed but compassionate whiskey priest, and the calculating, brutal lieutenant. The story, of course lends itself to allegory – the journey, spiritual and otherwise. But instead of a journey from A to B, the priest only seems to circle over the same landscape, unable (and/or unwilling) to escape from his duty and destiny. It is easy to see that this book isn’t going to end good for the priest. The question for him, I think, is whether he will maintain what little faith and dignity he has left to him.
“He felt an unwilling hatred of the child ahead of him and the sick woman – he was unworthy of what he carried... ‘Let me be caught soon…Let me be caught.’”
THE SPIN ZONE: One big fat question I have is whether Greene’s ideals as expressed in “Power and Glory” are more Christian, or simply humanitarian. Though The Priest reveals that his aspirations are for personal glory and a posh appointment, at his best, he has a strong desire to administer sacraments to the neediest and most poor people of the areas in which he travels – at his own peril.
“Suddenly and unexpectedly there was agony in the cemetery. They had been used to losing children, but they hadn’t been used to what the rest of the world knows best of all – the hope which peters out. He knew he was in the grip of the unforgivable sin, despair.”
YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN: On the short list of “books I need to read” (yes there is a long list) in no particular order: Let us Now Praise Famous Men, Lonesome Dove, Spook, All Over But the Shoutin’, Reading Lolita in Tehran. I’m also still working on my New Year’s resolution from last year, which is to read all of the Pulitzer Prize winners. I think I’m over halfway there. Books I’m pondering for next book club: Clockwork Orange, Iron Lake, Earth Abides, Dead I Well May Be.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Portentous omen !!!
Obama in Hawaii and healthy - Rush Limbaugh in Hawaii with chest pains !! A harmonic convergence?
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Halfway There
This is the first in what will be a monthly tackling of each of our book club selections from the perspective of being half finished with the book. I’ll give some random thoughts on the book, discuss what works and what doesn’t, where I think the book is heading, and anything else I want to talk about. Without further ado…
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
TALKING POINTS MEMO
I was a little daunted by the size of this book at the start (almost 600 pages.) After just finishing Dickens’ meaty “Mutual Friend”, I was hoping for something a little brisker. But after chunking through 800+ pages of Victorian High Society, I thought a page turning thriller would be just what the doctor ordered. That is why the start of this book was such a disappointment. I though the first 30 pages or so were a real drag. When you are reading a book categorized a “thriller” you expect it to open with a gruff private eye and a blonde, sexy, grieving heroine, a stormy night, missing diamonds. Instead, we get pages of financial mumbo-jumbo, trial bally-hoo, and character descriptions. It isn’t, in fact, until almost page 100 that the author gets around to mentioning the “murder” part of this murder mystery. But, the good news is that by then I was hooked. Once this book picks up steam, it really gets cooking. By page 300 or so (halfway) I would say this book has officially reached “can’t put down” status.
“I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.”
Outside of Henrik, Martin Vanger is the only person in the Vanger family who is presented sympathetically. So, clearly he must be the criminal. However, there seem to be enough screwed up people in this family to account for a conspiracy of the creepy/sexual kind, so I’m wagering that there is more than one villain in the family. I suspect (or I think we are led to suspect) that the crazy Nazi Uncle Harald has to have something to do with it as well. As for the crime itself – I suspect Harriet is actually still alive. She escaped her crazy attacker(s) and rather than face exposing them, and challenge the Vanger machine, chose to disappear. Cecelia seems to know more than she is saying, as, I suspect does Henrik. There is a bigger mystery under the mystery, or again, I think there is one that is hinted at. A great job so far by the author to make insinuations, spin, and then change course. Which is the job of a good mystery writer - I hope the conclusion lives up to the buildup.
THE SPIN ZONE
Because there is always a political angle... It’s no surprise that Larsson would include references throughout this book to extremist and racial politics, Nazism, and political and financial corruption. These are all issues he was passionate about in real life, which were manifested in his founding of his own political magazine, EXPO (much like his fictional hero, Blomkvist). In addition, he makes repeated reference to sex issues, gender, and power. In fact, each section of the book begins with pretty hairy statistics like “46% of the women in Sweden have been subjected to some form of violence by men”.
YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN
I received Elmore Leonard’s new one “Road Dogs” and the Atwood “Handmaids Tale” for Christmas. I bought the wife two non-fiction things, Mortenson’s new book “Rocks into Schools” and the Hmong refugee memoir “The Latehomecomer”. I am considering holding off on the Leonard and putting it on the book list for when I host in March/April. What books did everyone else ask Santa for this Christmas? Good luck finishing “Dragon Tattoo”.
This is the first in what will be a monthly tackling of each of our book club selections from the perspective of being half finished with the book. I’ll give some random thoughts on the book, discuss what works and what doesn’t, where I think the book is heading, and anything else I want to talk about. Without further ado…
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
TALKING POINTS MEMO
I was a little daunted by the size of this book at the start (almost 600 pages.) After just finishing Dickens’ meaty “Mutual Friend”, I was hoping for something a little brisker. But after chunking through 800+ pages of Victorian High Society, I thought a page turning thriller would be just what the doctor ordered. That is why the start of this book was such a disappointment. I though the first 30 pages or so were a real drag. When you are reading a book categorized a “thriller” you expect it to open with a gruff private eye and a blonde, sexy, grieving heroine, a stormy night, missing diamonds. Instead, we get pages of financial mumbo-jumbo, trial bally-hoo, and character descriptions. It isn’t, in fact, until almost page 100 that the author gets around to mentioning the “murder” part of this murder mystery. But, the good news is that by then I was hooked. Once this book picks up steam, it really gets cooking. By page 300 or so (halfway) I would say this book has officially reached “can’t put down” status.
“I’M JUST ASKING QUESTIONS.”
Outside of Henrik, Martin Vanger is the only person in the Vanger family who is presented sympathetically. So, clearly he must be the criminal. However, there seem to be enough screwed up people in this family to account for a conspiracy of the creepy/sexual kind, so I’m wagering that there is more than one villain in the family. I suspect (or I think we are led to suspect) that the crazy Nazi Uncle Harald has to have something to do with it as well. As for the crime itself – I suspect Harriet is actually still alive. She escaped her crazy attacker(s) and rather than face exposing them, and challenge the Vanger machine, chose to disappear. Cecelia seems to know more than she is saying, as, I suspect does Henrik. There is a bigger mystery under the mystery, or again, I think there is one that is hinted at. A great job so far by the author to make insinuations, spin, and then change course. Which is the job of a good mystery writer - I hope the conclusion lives up to the buildup.
THE SPIN ZONE
Because there is always a political angle... It’s no surprise that Larsson would include references throughout this book to extremist and racial politics, Nazism, and political and financial corruption. These are all issues he was passionate about in real life, which were manifested in his founding of his own political magazine, EXPO (much like his fictional hero, Blomkvist). In addition, he makes repeated reference to sex issues, gender, and power. In fact, each section of the book begins with pretty hairy statistics like “46% of the women in Sweden have been subjected to some form of violence by men”.
YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN
I received Elmore Leonard’s new one “Road Dogs” and the Atwood “Handmaids Tale” for Christmas. I bought the wife two non-fiction things, Mortenson’s new book “Rocks into Schools” and the Hmong refugee memoir “The Latehomecomer”. I am considering holding off on the Leonard and putting it on the book list for when I host in March/April. What books did everyone else ask Santa for this Christmas? Good luck finishing “Dragon Tattoo”.
Friday, December 18, 2009
She's number 3!
Salon.com ran a series of articles proclaiming the ten craziest people of the year. Our girl placed third, better than the likes of Suzanne Somers, Kirk Cameron, and Charlie Sheen. Read about it here:
"Crazy's rising star"
R
"Crazy's rising star"
R
Thursday, December 17, 2009
prayercast!
here's our gal, doing what she does best...
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/79576252.html?elr=KArks47cQiU47cQiU47cQUzyaP37D_MDua_eyD5PcOiU
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