Dogs, Hamlet, and Lessons Unlearned

Weeks ago I read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. Well, most of it. I got bored at about page 300 and skipped to the end. Once I read the end, I found no reason to go back and read the part I skipped. (So if there's anything questionable in that last chunk, I can't tell you.)

The writing is what makes the book worth reading. Wroblewski obviously beat his draft over and over until it came out shining. Here's a sample from page two: "Past the turn he spotted the lantern, a gourd of ruby glass envined in black wire, the flame within a rose that sprang and licked at the throat of the glass, skewing rib-shadows across the door."

"Gourd of ruby glass?" "Envined?" "Rib-shadows?" Who is this guy? Marvelous.

The other thing I liked was the development of the dog characters. Surprising, since I don't even think pet stories are all that funny.

So good book. Well written. Worth reading. If you need a plot summary, go to Amazon. I wouldn't do it justice.

SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! I am now going to spoil the book for you. Turn back if you don't want me to do so.

There were two things I did not like about the book.

1. The main female character, Trudy, is married to a good man (not perfect, but good). They have a good (not perfect, but good) marriage. They are the parents of Edgar, the main character. But then Edgar's father, Gar, dies mysteriously. Spoiler: Gar's brother, Claude, killed him.

Claude is slimy. Claude is a liar. Claude leeches. Claude is a jerk.

So then, with Gar gone, Trudy hooks up with Claude. The author gives all sorts of excuses as to why Trudy made this decision---she needs a man to help her run the farm, Claude reminds her of Gar. Claude is fun.

No excuse. I wanted to yell at her. Didn't she learn anything in her dating years? Stay away from men who lie. Don't stay with someone who cons you. There are really good guys in the world---those are the ones you count among your dearest friends. Eventually, you marry one of them. And there are other men who have the integrity of jello (wobble, wobble)---those are the ones to kick in the shins. Run away! Run away!

And after being married already to Gar (a good guy), why on earth would she saddle herself with someone less?

Didn't make any sense to me. Not at all. Any woman of sense knows it's better to lose the farm than to lose her dignity.

2. The whole plot was too Shakespeare for me. Uncle. Nephew. Mother/Sister-in-Law/Wife. The men kill each other in the end.

It was like Hamlet, only with some interesting dog characters thrown in.

(pause)

Yet still, I leaf through the pages and I know that I liked reading this book. Too long, yes, (thus the Deborahskip), but a stellar first work for Wroblewski. I hope to see more from him. I'd expect great things.

Comfort Food

Someone should do a study about the correlation between food cravings and literature cravings.* They should use pregnant women: what are the women craving---Spicy? Bland? Familiar? Exotic?---and see if there is a literature/food connection. Because there is with me. All I want is comfort food in both areas.

Here's what I've been craving (or able to stomach): Greek avgolemono soup, potato chips, and chocolate ice cream.

Here's what I've been reading: Guernsey, The Red Tent (avoid that one if you are hypersensitive to content), Ender's Game, most of Xenocide, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and snatches of both Jane Eyre and The Tao of Pooh. I'm sure if my nausea continues that I'd move right to Daddy Long Legs, The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, and through the Anne of Green Gables series.

See? Comfort food, all.

But I'm feeling better, I think, at least for today, so I have some other ideas. At least four books come to mind.

So moving on to new books. . . anyone have any suggestions for my list?

*Maybe no one else gets literature cravings. Maybe no one else wakes up and thinks, "What I really need is a good dose of Valentine Wiggin" or "I think I need a shot of Robert Frost poetry---perfect!" That's OK. You can settle for just having chocolate ice cream cravings. That's probably more normal.

Dallas trip

I rarely post pictures on this blog, but here's one of my family for those of you who know my siblings. We were all together in Dallas for my brother's wedding a month or so ago. Here I am, just beginning to show my pregnancy.

And here is one of me and Eric.

After a long hiatus, it's not even about books

TADA! I'm finally posting again. I've been out on maternity leave: not a baby now, but one coming early next spring (or late winter---is March spring or winter? It's certainly spring where we live. But in North Dakota, it's probably still winter). At any rate, it's been quite a first trimester, and I haven't been blogging. I have been reading, and I'll update you on that soon, but I wanted to do another random post of the things that our family has been reviewing: all the ready made frozen foods from Trader Joes. Here's what we thought:

1. Their pizza. Not bad. I'm not a pizza person anyway, but this is passable. I give it a 7.

2. Frozen burritos (with salsa verde). Eric was so unimpressed, I didn't even try them. 4.

3. The chow mein. Too syrupy. 5.

4. The chicken empanadas. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner. These were great. The boys didn't want them---too bad, more for us. 9.

We've also been eating a lot of ready-made frozen pot pie from Save Mart. 6.

And Eric's meal of choice to feed the boys is Costco corn dogs. I give them a 2 (blech), but the boys (all my boys) adore them and would give them closer to an 8.

There you go. I'm signing off now. Even writing this blog post is making me queasy.

I hope my body gets the message that my second trimester is upon us. It's about time.

The Last Lecture

I found a gem.

Go read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. Pausch is a professor at Carnegie Mellon when asked to give his last lecture---not because he's retiring from work, but because he's diagnosed with terminal cancer. This book is his lecture, and his thoughts, about his life and living.

Perhaps it's because my father-in-law just passed away that reading this book came at the perfect time for me.

It's good. Funny. Upbeat. Sincere. I laughed during the book, I bawled at the end. Not that emotional response necessarily an indicator of good writing, but in this case, this book got to me.

Not as heavy as Tuesdays with Morrie, but along the same lines. I think you'll like it.

Mystery Book Revealed

The Mystery Book that's been taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R for me to finish is The Omnivore's Dilemma by Pollan. Pollan tracks the origins of four meals: one from McDonalds, one of "organic" food, one of non-organic food, and one that he hunted and gathered.

The book is long.

Pollan is thorough. With the exection of the fact that he talks about corn for half of the book, I thought the thoroughness was warranted.

But book is very good. Pollan is a good writer, witty, charming, conversational, intelligent.

The reason that it too me so long is because there are definite agendas about this book and it's hard not to internalize them. I had to pause when I found myself seriously considering applying all of Pollan's agendas. For example: corn syrup . . . bad. So I was checking all labels. Industrialized meat: bad. So I was balking at buying frozen chicken breasts at Costco. Lentils from my favorite Indian supermarket: bad, they've been shipped overseas. See? I had to read a little while, pause, let my food habits stabilize, and then go back and read some more. I have changed my buying and eating habits some---I think that's the point---but I didn't want to push myself into culinary neurosis.

Here are some of the changes that I have tried to make:

1. I do, actually, avoid corn syrup. Why does it need to be in processed tomato sauce anyway?

2. I do cook more vegetarian meals. Lentils, beans, that sort of thing.

3. I do try to buy local. I make exeptions for important things like pineapple and chocolate.

4. I do eat free range beef. It's the beef that wanders my dad's back pasture, actually, so I know exactly where the cow was raised.

Here's a sample of food that I think Pollan would approve of:

1. Strawberry jam, made by my mother, from the berries she bought down the road from her house.

2. Beef from my dad's cows. He raises them. Names them---I once had a roommate who wouldn't eat my beef because it had a name. Better than having a number in a feedlot, I say.

3. A nectarine from the farmer's market by my house.

4. Yogurt with no corn syrup.

So now Mystery Book has been completed. It was a lovely feast. Enjoy.

Blackbird Pond

A while ago, I did a top ten post on young adult literature that I thought was worth reading as an adult. I could only come up with nine, and some readers suggested The Witch of Blackbird Pond as a possibility for number ten.

So I finally read it again (while reading another book: you'll still have to wait for that one---Why is it taking Deborah so long? Why doesn't she just finish Mystery Book and get on with it? What's the deal? You'll have to wait and then I'll explain. I'm almost done with Mystery Book. Stay tuned.)

Blackbird Pond was great, of course, and I think it should be read again and again. This is one good example of historical fiction that makes me wonder why more middle school/high school history teachers don't teach historical fiction when they teach history. There's some really good stuff in Blackbird Pond about pre-revolution America, Quakers, Puritans, etc. Had this been an extra credit option when I did American history as a junior in high school, I would have done it. And liked it. And learned from it.

Jenny, I think Emma might be old enough for Blackbird Pond. Certainly as a read-aloud. Would be a good basis for early American history discussion.