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May. 27th, 2003 06:40 pmI escaped deep into the North Woods for Memorial Day weekend, and although the weather was rainy, the trip was wonderful and the break from civilization was much needed. It was also the last time my dog got to be in one of his favorite places, and the last time I got to see him. He's had cancer for a while, and was put down this morning. He was my faithful hound for twelve years. I'll miss him.
This is certainly more personal than I usually get in this journal, so now I will officially retreat to my standard type of entry.
I finished A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain while I was away, and all in all I was very impressed with it. It's not often that a collection of short stories is of such consistent high quality. Usually there are at least one or two stories that don't work quite as well as the others for some reason, but that was not the case with this book. There was one that stood out as being particularly lovely, but of course I can not now remember the title. All in all, however, the stories were wonderful. The thing that seemed most remarkable to me was the fact that all but one of them were written from a Vietnamese perspective, and many of them were narrated from the points of view of women. I probably shouldn't jump to conclusions, but I'm fairly certain that Robert Olen Butler is neither female nor Vietnamese. Therefore, I consider it an amazing accomplishment that he was able to write so truthfully from a perspective so different from his own. I was also impressed with the way that he was able to create characters that seemed so similar on the surface, a dozen middle-aged Vietnamese women, for example, but to have them be as varied and vibrant as a dozen middle-aged Vietnamese women would actually be. Plus, the book was interesting because it provided a lot of insight into an aspect of the Vietnam war that I'm not particularly familiar with. I know a lot about the protests and culture clash that occured in this country at the time, but very little about what actually happened in Vietnam.
After finishing that, I began The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch. I'm really enjoying it, but will have to save the thoughts that I've developed so far until tomorrow.
This is certainly more personal than I usually get in this journal, so now I will officially retreat to my standard type of entry.
I finished A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain while I was away, and all in all I was very impressed with it. It's not often that a collection of short stories is of such consistent high quality. Usually there are at least one or two stories that don't work quite as well as the others for some reason, but that was not the case with this book. There was one that stood out as being particularly lovely, but of course I can not now remember the title. All in all, however, the stories were wonderful. The thing that seemed most remarkable to me was the fact that all but one of them were written from a Vietnamese perspective, and many of them were narrated from the points of view of women. I probably shouldn't jump to conclusions, but I'm fairly certain that Robert Olen Butler is neither female nor Vietnamese. Therefore, I consider it an amazing accomplishment that he was able to write so truthfully from a perspective so different from his own. I was also impressed with the way that he was able to create characters that seemed so similar on the surface, a dozen middle-aged Vietnamese women, for example, but to have them be as varied and vibrant as a dozen middle-aged Vietnamese women would actually be. Plus, the book was interesting because it provided a lot of insight into an aspect of the Vietnam war that I'm not particularly familiar with. I know a lot about the protests and culture clash that occured in this country at the time, but very little about what actually happened in Vietnam.
After finishing that, I began The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch. I'm really enjoying it, but will have to save the thoughts that I've developed so far until tomorrow.
