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[decemberthirty]

Well, I'm still reading A Star Called Henry, and I really like it. It's reminding me a lot of Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, which I also really enjoyed. Both books deal with the history of a nation through the life of a character who somehow manages to be a true everyman, and yet to have an extraordinary knack for being present at all the crucial places and times of his age. A bit like Forrest Gump, now that I think about it, although totally different in tone and effect. Hmm. That was not the comparison that I was going for. Nonetheless, both Rushdie and Doyle have used that method with really extraordinary results. I loved Midnight's Children, but I'm finding that I'm having an even stronger reaction to Henry due to the fact that the history in question is the history of Ireland. As I read it I can't help but imagine my grandfather as Henry, surviving poverty and starvation, getting mixed up in the Easter Rebellion, standing next to de Valera... Of course this is patently ridiculous, because my grandfather was born in Syracuse NY to a family that had been in America for quite a few years. But somehow I can't avoid the romance of imagining it. Dreaming of a distant, hopelessly romanticized past? Gosh, I guess I really am Irish.

In culinary news, I made an excellent roasted tomato and onion soup last night. Very good and very warming, which is certainly necessary in weather like this! And I'm cooking my specialty tonight: pasta with vegetables sauteed in pesto and romano cheese. Yum.

Comments

[prosicated.livejournal.com]

sounds even better once i know what goes in to it, yum... i will make it soon and report back. =)

as for Rushdie, i can't seem to keep track but i believe i've read only a fraction of his work, i wish my memory for titles were better though. i suggested haroun and the sea of stories to my boy and i do adore that book, it's unusual for him though. the writing style remains, but the subject characters and plots are woven very differently from, say, midnight's children, which is dense and twined.
His nonfiction pieces (I've read snippets in books and web sites) show his pattern of thought and argument far more clearly than his fiction and are genuinely captivating. as for other novels, i believe the ones i admired most were shame and the ground beneath her feet?? They're both relatively recent ones, if I've gotten the titles correct, and I've found that his writing has matured and benefitted from his chase and final settling down, or at least the maturation seems to coincide with those events.

And if I may, I believe you live in the Philly area still, do you know of any good book clubs who might accept me as a reader? I haven't found any that appeal to me yet (and my sense of where to look for them is failing as i realize that most occur by word of mouth), but would really like a situation like that.

[decemberthirty.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Rushdie recommendations. I'll have to add them to my ever-growing list of books to read... Part of the reason I've never read anything else by him is because I didn't really know of anything other than The Satanic Verses, and I was kind of intimidated by all the nonsense surrounding that book. Pretty silly of me.

As for book clubs, I'm afraid I can't really be of much help. I do live in Philly, but I really don't know anything at all about the world of book clubs. You could always start your own, of course, although I wouldn't really know how to go about that either. Hmmm. I've never really thought about joining a book club before, but if you find a good one (or start one!) let me know 'cause I might be interested...