Monday, February 7, 2011

one. this is where i leave you. jonathan tropper.



after reading about the project that david michael lamb from the CBC has undertaken...i decided to do the same.

52 books in 52 weeks.

why not?

the summer i was pregnant with alex, i read 15 books, sitting comfy and cross legged on my dock. it was a lovely, lovely time and i immersed myself in books, luxuriating in the last little piece of time i would have  to myself before the easy sweet demands of new motherhood took over.

that was the theory...little did i know how true that was going to be.
and untrue about the easy part;).

i have managed to read exactly 4 books in the 2 years since alex was born. it is painful. i have not stopped buying books...i have just stopped reading them.
i have a pile of "going to read when i have a minute" books piled fifteen high beside my bed.

well, not really, any more,  as i have now boxed them in anticipation of the *big change*.

which was a relief as they basically spewed literary guilt at me every time i looked at them.

lonely pages, untouched, often covered with a pithy magazine, posing as a sad reading substitute. and to be very honest...they have been used more as a perch for my ipad in the months since she joined the family than anything else.

but something about that CBC article, david michael lamb and his lovely blog that accompanies it, www.arcticlamb.ca, spurred me into action.

so, i picked up a book that i had randomly purchased last summer, while collecting supplies for holly's summer camp adventure, and dove in.

i am not a good book reviewer...i tend to like something in everything i read,  it is the optimist in me.
i fear that despite all my years of training in critical literary thought, i have become soft and unusable as a critic.

i am so sorry, berkeley kaite ( my university prof )....you taught me well, but that process is now gone...

so we are left with my quick, happy take on the book:).

i have to say that the first chapter of jonathan tropper's book, this is where i leave you, made me both squirm and giggle.
the initial image of birthday candles and burning balls was enough to have me continue with definite trepidation...but man, what a great story it ended up being.
(that will be my only spoiler )

so many nuggets of wisdom tucked into a brutal week spent sitting shiva with the fictional foxman  family, not used to having to be anywhere together. peacefully.

there was much that i recognized in this book...mostly the stuff i was laughing at, but also the parts that made me cringe. and then laugh. because jonathan tropper is a talented storyteller in that... that which should not be discussed plays out easily on his pages.
there were parts of the story that felt to...easy...but the tale itself is not.

it was worth it.

the whole idea of leaving what you know, without knowing were you will end up is a theme that resonates with me.



so, book one read. and it felt good. very good. what the hell was i thinking waiting so long...
on to book two.

to find the book...
i use chapters/indigo

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I too am an optimist and see something positive in everything I read. I wonder if that makes me a better literature teacher? But I do try to keep at least one critical eye open. You are ambitious! 1 a week and with that Big Change looming? Good luck and don't be too hard on yourself it you hold onto one for 2 weeks or more. At least you are reading again! And that book sounds good. Thanks for the tip.

DaniGirl said...

Putting this on my library list, thanks! Looking forward to more reviews!!

I used to gobble up books, but find myself shying away from the express reads shelf at the library because a week or two simply isn't enough time any more. A book a week, eh? Good luck with that! ;)