(no subject)

[decemberthirty]

I finished The Killer Angels this morning. The ending was just incredibly moving. In retrospect, I can see how the book could be seen as sentimental, but while reading it I was absolutely swept up in the emotion of it. The southerners, Longstreet, Lee, Armistead, reminded me a little bit of Larry McMurtry's characters from Lonesome Dove. They share a strong, unspoken code of honor, and a deep inarticulateness when it comes to emotions. I'm very interested in the way that authors can convey the intensity of relationships between people who are completely unable to talk about their feelings for each other. In a wy, it's similar to what I'm trying to do in my own novel...

Now the question is what to read next? I've got T.C. Boyle's Drop City at home, as well as a book of short stories by Updike, so it looks like I'll be choosing between those two options.