Yep, six inches of snow out there on the deck and more on the way. The power had been flickering all afternoon and about 6 o'clock, it went out entirely. It just came back on, so I fired up the MacBook again out of sheer boredom.
I've been wading through the other two Laurie Pedersen books, mostly because I don't have anything else handy. And though I am tired of the constant sardonic narrative and the stereotypical characters, I am hanging in there to see who Hallie is finally going to lose her virginity to. And let me tell you, it's pure dogged determination to do this with a headlamp, wrapped up in a blanket with the cats flanking me in the big chair.
What a relief to have the lights come back on so I could do something else! But I'm almost done with Book 2, having finished Book 1 in the ferry line Saturday, and I will be very happy to get the chore done. I'm one of these people who has to finish a book, once I've started it. Very rarely do I give up on something unless it's too gory and violent---and predictable.
One thing that I have to say about the Unitarian character in Pedersen's books, she must go to a big church where there are zillions of social action projects, because she's embroiled in every cause that ever crossed a SA committee's agenda. And she must be the only person from her church who does any of this stuff, because she's seldom with a group, she's nearly always by herself, getting arrested or protesting on TV. She and I agree on a lot of her issues, but I hate it that she's so Lone Ranger about them.
Okay, better post this before the lights go out again.
8 comments:
What do you think the deal was with the dinner party scene in book 2?
I was mystified. Is there an explanation of what was going on in there that I missed?
CC
Gosh, I'm hurrying through these suckers and will have to go back and reread the dinner party scene in order to give you a coherent answer, CC. I'm still pretty snowed in this morning, even though it's clear, so I'll try to do that since I'm not going anywhere till the driveway melts. Is it the scene where Gil and Doris come to visit?
Ayup. But at the end, you find out it was some sort of wacky plan and Gil's sister pretending to be Doris for no apparent reason.
I don't get it.
CC
That was really confusing to me too. I didn't get it until after the whole thing was over and even then it made very little sense. It seemed like a device she threw in there to get Gil and Bernard back together. Hallie wasn't confused, but there was no real clue that any behind-the-scenes maneuvering had gone on. Pretty clumsy, I thought.
Hey there, Miss Kitty, please remember this: life is too short to waste on reading stuff that you don't even like. I long ago vowed that I would not read junk. There is so much good writing out there longing to be read; why waste your brain cells on something that doesn't touch you?
I haven't read the books you are talking about (and based on your lukewarm reviews, I probably won't ever read them). So I am not qualified to comment on them per se, but I do want to encourage you to Put The Book Down and Move Away With Your Hands Up. Nothing bad will happen, I promise you.
Then go and read "The Known World," by Edward P. Jones. It's a disturbing, realistic, totally believable fictional work about slavery in Virginia from the 1840's to the mid-Civil War, including the little-known insight that there were free Blacks who were slave-owners, too. Nuanced, subtle, very good book.
It must be my Protestant Reading Ethic at work. If it's any solace, I am able to eject movie DVDs I don't like after five minutes. With books, I often find a question I want to answer before I let go of the book. In this case it was "who will deflower Hallie?" And I liked the answer.
More to the point than your admirable determination in reading, I think, is that I hope that you will manage to acquire a back-up generator eventually. When my parents in law retired to the former family summer house on the Maine coast, that was one of their early purchases.
LinguistFriend
I may well do that very thing, LF. Only right now, the hardware store is all sold out! It's supposed to rain later today and of course, that brings its own problems, but usually doesn't knock the power out.
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