I finished a great book while I was on vacation called The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. Junot Diaz is an author I read in my creative writing classes in college who I absolutely fell in love with. His first book is a collection of short stories called Drown. Short stories are my favorite writing medium (I say medium because instead of a genre, it feels to me like more of a tool an author artist can use). Short stories require an author to be particularly succinct. You have to say what you're going to say very quickly. And my favorite thing -- your characters have to be enormously complicated and often very bizarre and quirky. The short stories in Drown have recurring characters in the different episodes. The setting bounces back and forth between New York and the Dominican Republic and serves as a teaching tool for the readers who have no previous exposure to DR history and culture. It's beautiful. One thing that is so uniquely Diaz is his use of Spanish in all of his stories. Foreign language is a tricky add-on because there is an inclination to qualify the word with the English translation, which usually winds up slapping your readers in the face. So then you try to make the word make sense contextually, but insulting your readers intelligence is not a good idea either. Diaz unapologetically adds Spanish words and phrases into his writing and makes no attempt at explaining them. You either get it or you don't. It makes me think about all the times he must have heard peer reviewers and editors tell him he should explain the meanings... and how he has had to stick to his guns and refuse to do so. Such confidence.
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao has similar themes and style as Drown. It's an immigrant family's story. It crosses generations and countries and characters. The full story and family history pieces together as each chapter tells the story from a different character's perspective. The footnotes are laugh out loud funny. It's nice to invest in a story that has been carefully parented by its author.
So now I'm on to Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. I have admittedly been a little nervous to start it and get stuck in it. Garcia Marquez novels cannot be messed around with! I read Love in the Time of Cholera last August - and LOVED it, don't get me wrong - but it was very dense and requires captive reading! I'm about 1/2 way through One Hundred Years of Solitude and am not quite as captivated with it as I was with Love in the Time of Cholera. But I do like it. And I love how Garcia Marquez's style comes through so strongly. There is always kind of a fantastical element to his writing. One of the characters can't stop eating earth and chips of paint off the garden wall. The man who appeared to be the central character at the beginning of the book ends up being tied by a rope to a chestnut tree in the backyard and lives the remainder of his days there and everyone acts like it's normal and acceptable. What? Garcia Marquez plays with time a lot.. and premonitions. Characters know what is going to happen before it does. Patrick and I had a laugh when I was trying to get the book started - he was like yeah I couldn't get past the family tree on page one. No joke, I had literally picked up the book and tried to start it but got totally stopped on the family tree and put it down for another 24 hours before attempting it again. Each character's name shows up in like 3-5 other characters in the book! UGH! It's so confusing!
I'm trying to listen to new music lately. Thank god for Pandora. I typed in Martin Sexton and came up with a bunch of new songs I love from Colin Hay and Joshua Radin. Waiting for My Real Life to Begin by Colin Hay is one of my favorites - download it if you can. Also I re-discovered Bonnie Raitt's version of Angel from Montgomery. Ugh. It's great. I'd like to see her in concert!
The song I have on repeat the most right now is Find You Waiting by Decemberadio. I've never heard of these guys before, but I really like the lead singer's voice. Reminds me a little of Ronnie Van Zant. I found a neat tribute to our troops with the song in the background. Click here for the video.
I'm not a preacher and I'm not a hero
My life has never been that kind
But there is one thing that I hold on to
I am yours... and Lord, you are mine
4 comments:
Oh my Carrie. I completely understand your desire you complete things. So much so, that I will drink an extra glass of juice just to throw the container away or skim a magazine that has been sitting on my table just so I can say I read it and toss it in the trash. What complicates these matters in my life is that I can't throw something away until it is finished/read/used.
So glad to have to back (via blog).
ooo...and you also need to check out Jake Armerding
I truly enjoy reading your thoughts, even after all of these years. I'm still anonymous, but only until you acknowledge your "anonymous commenter" with a weak guess.....I haven't had time to catch up on your posts till now......and by the way your post on Tony Snow was very cool indeed. FYI, me and the wife are visiting DC in 4 weeks over the weekend.....so I don't wanna be anonymous for much longer :)
I don't know but I do NOT like the anonymous thing! When are you coming and for what?
Post a Comment