Wednesday is a Reading Day
Aug. 15th, 2018 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
evelyn_bWhat I've Finished Reading
My aunt really loved The Memory Keeper's Daughter, so when we met up at a used bookstore a couple of months ago, she bought me a copy to read. I didn't love it, but I was happy to have read it, as I wouldn't have thought to read it on my own. It's a situation novel, in which the most important thing is not the writing or the characters or even what they do, but the painful situation the author has contrived for them.
The situation: in 1964, a young doctor's wife gives birth to twins. One twin has Down's syndrome, the other doesn't. It just so happens that he had to deliver his own babies in a snowstorm with the help of a nurse who happens to worship him, so instead of dealing with a lot of other doctors and hospital protocol, he's able to shove the Down's baby into the nurse's arms and tell her to put it in a home. Then he tells his drowsy wife that yes, there were two babies but one of them died and no, she can't see it, they buried it right away. He does this because his own sister was sickly and died young, and he doesn't want his wife to suffer grief the way his mother did. The nurse decides she can't face putting the baby in an institution, so she moves to another city and tells everyone it's hers. This baby is the titular daughter. Then Mrs. Doctor spends 25 years grieving until eventually Doctor dies and The Truth Can Be Told. She and her son go to meet the missing twin and it's ok, actually, everything has turned out fine.
In the meantime there are a lot of domestic dramas, most of them low-key and predictable, one of them ludicrous. It's not an intolerably clumsy handling of the material or an innovative or an especially complex one. It's a careful, competent, stiff-jointed and predictable novel with book club aids in the back. Phoebe, the daughter with Down's syndrome, never really emerges from the fog of inspiration and cliche as a real or interesting character, but neither does anyone else, so I can't fault the author for it specially. I did find myself irritated by how doggedly heartwarming it insisted on being in the last chapters, after conveniently killing off the dad for easy forgiveness. My heart was unwarmed and if anything stonier than usual.
In conclusion: this was a book. I read it; it was fine.
What I'm Reading Now
I'm about halfway through The Life of Samuel Johnson, and even though it seems to me like I'm moving through it at a pretty fast clip, there's a lot of it to move through. SamJam and the Boz are still the most lovable intergenerational bros in the world's most meandering biography. Of course I'm going to have to check Boswell's journals now to see if he heeded his friend's advice or if they're all cluttered up with The Meat Report.
I'm on the cozy train a little earlier than planned, because I went to the library to get some Lloyd Alexander (my niece and nephew are really into the Prydain Chronicles; last time I went for a visit they tried to get me to play Roll the Death Cauldron Through the Woods and I had no idea what was going on, but this time I'll be ready) and realized that I missed Sue Grafton and what the hell, they don't take long to read. So I'm also reading J is for Judgment. Kinsey is reflecting on her natural love of snooping and how she'd definitely be in jail by now if she hadn't gone into law enforcement. She was also almost caught ransacking a hotel room and had to pretend to be some random dude's birthday hooker, a subterfuge that made me anxious and unhappy, even if she didn't pursue it as long as I feared she might. Look out for yourself, Kinsey!
The Book of Three, the first in the Chronicles, is a totally charming children's book, except for the ubiquitous comic-relief Gollum Lite character, Gurgi, who . . . would be hilarious if I were seven, I admit. But some things are lost and can never be regained. All the characters are a little one-note, but that's probably normal for middle-grade fantasy, and mostly the notes are very likable. Eilonwy, the bossy girl who has the bad luck to be apprenticed to an evil sorceress, is my favorite by a mile.
What I Plan to Read Next
K is for Killer! by Sue Grafton, among others. What else could K be for?
My aunt really loved The Memory Keeper's Daughter, so when we met up at a used bookstore a couple of months ago, she bought me a copy to read. I didn't love it, but I was happy to have read it, as I wouldn't have thought to read it on my own. It's a situation novel, in which the most important thing is not the writing or the characters or even what they do, but the painful situation the author has contrived for them.
The situation: in 1964, a young doctor's wife gives birth to twins. One twin has Down's syndrome, the other doesn't. It just so happens that he had to deliver his own babies in a snowstorm with the help of a nurse who happens to worship him, so instead of dealing with a lot of other doctors and hospital protocol, he's able to shove the Down's baby into the nurse's arms and tell her to put it in a home. Then he tells his drowsy wife that yes, there were two babies but one of them died and no, she can't see it, they buried it right away. He does this because his own sister was sickly and died young, and he doesn't want his wife to suffer grief the way his mother did. The nurse decides she can't face putting the baby in an institution, so she moves to another city and tells everyone it's hers. This baby is the titular daughter. Then Mrs. Doctor spends 25 years grieving until eventually Doctor dies and The Truth Can Be Told. She and her son go to meet the missing twin and it's ok, actually, everything has turned out fine.
In the meantime there are a lot of domestic dramas, most of them low-key and predictable, one of them ludicrous. It's not an intolerably clumsy handling of the material or an innovative or an especially complex one. It's a careful, competent, stiff-jointed and predictable novel with book club aids in the back. Phoebe, the daughter with Down's syndrome, never really emerges from the fog of inspiration and cliche as a real or interesting character, but neither does anyone else, so I can't fault the author for it specially. I did find myself irritated by how doggedly heartwarming it insisted on being in the last chapters, after conveniently killing off the dad for easy forgiveness. My heart was unwarmed and if anything stonier than usual.
In conclusion: this was a book. I read it; it was fine.
What I'm Reading Now
He again advised me to keep a journal fully and minutely, but not to mention such trifles as, that meat was too much or too little done, or that the weather was fair or rainy. He had, till very near his death, a contempt for the notion that the weather affects the human frame.
I'm about halfway through The Life of Samuel Johnson, and even though it seems to me like I'm moving through it at a pretty fast clip, there's a lot of it to move through. SamJam and the Boz are still the most lovable intergenerational bros in the world's most meandering biography. Of course I'm going to have to check Boswell's journals now to see if he heeded his friend's advice or if they're all cluttered up with The Meat Report.
I'm on the cozy train a little earlier than planned, because I went to the library to get some Lloyd Alexander (my niece and nephew are really into the Prydain Chronicles; last time I went for a visit they tried to get me to play Roll the Death Cauldron Through the Woods and I had no idea what was going on, but this time I'll be ready) and realized that I missed Sue Grafton and what the hell, they don't take long to read. So I'm also reading J is for Judgment. Kinsey is reflecting on her natural love of snooping and how she'd definitely be in jail by now if she hadn't gone into law enforcement. She was also almost caught ransacking a hotel room and had to pretend to be some random dude's birthday hooker, a subterfuge that made me anxious and unhappy, even if she didn't pursue it as long as I feared she might. Look out for yourself, Kinsey!
The Book of Three, the first in the Chronicles, is a totally charming children's book, except for the ubiquitous comic-relief Gollum Lite character, Gurgi, who . . . would be hilarious if I were seven, I admit. But some things are lost and can never be regained. All the characters are a little one-note, but that's probably normal for middle-grade fantasy, and mostly the notes are very likable. Eilonwy, the bossy girl who has the bad luck to be apprenticed to an evil sorceress, is my favorite by a mile.
What I Plan to Read Next
K is for Killer! by Sue Grafton, among others. What else could K be for?
no subject
Date: 2018-08-15 04:17 pm (UTC)I've always found most of Lloyd Alexander's characters one-note, more than can be accounted for by the fact that he's writing middle-grade fantasy; other middle-grade fantasy authors often create more complex characterizations.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-15 05:13 pm (UTC)So far, I have no predictions at all, except that almost certainly Taran and Eilonwy are going to save the day somehow. Hopefully the pig will also be able to retire from being a fantasy McGuffin and go back to wallowing cheerfully in any surface that presents itself.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-15 04:34 pm (UTC)Eilonwy is obv. the best, anyway, closely followed by Flewddur Fflam, although probably for reasons in books yet to come.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-15 05:21 pm (UTC)Eilonwy is a joy forever. I like to think that even if she hadn't gotten mixed up with adventurers, she would eventually have been able to hold her own against even the evilest of sorceresses. I look forward to reading the rest (even if it will take longer than I thought; the public library disappointed me by only having the first one for some reason).
no subject
Date: 2018-08-15 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-17 03:48 am (UTC)And now Taran's all conflicted because he's met a rival for The Only Girl In the Book - Prince Rhun (also the only other character of Taran and Eilonwy's generation we've met so far, so of course he's a rival!) Prince Rhun is a cheerfully oblivious idiot who is Obviously Wrong For Eilonwy and I am very fond of him already. His dad keeps putting him in command of a lot of navies and things so he'll learn The Responsibilities of Royalty, but he doesn't really know how to do anything but be cheerful so he's constantly just accidentally capsizing ships or losing whole platoons or whatever.
Which is to say: I'm really enjoying these books! And should probably pace myself! But it's hard to pace yourself when there are so few words per page!
no subject
Date: 2018-08-17 07:24 am (UTC)*passes over a wad of tissues for Taran Wanderer and The High King*
I hope you continue enjoying them! They gave me much pleasure and all the feels when I was the right age for them.
no subject
Date: 2018-08-16 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-08-17 03:49 am (UTC)