3 posts tagged “book”
I haven't written many reviews here lately. I'll try to get back on that...
A few weeks ago I was wandering around Elliot Bay Book Co. looking for something to read and just wasn't finding anything that appealed to me.
What I wanted was an adventure story... I looked in the literature section but found a bunch of award winning books about slowly slipping into insanity. I checked the science fiction section but found mostly books about cloning gone crazy. Poetry... no. Self help... no. Cookbooks... no.
Anyway, I finally came across two that looked ok. I just finished the first one, a historical fiction called Pride of Carthage about Hannibal invading Rome.
What can you say, war is depressing. Everyone suffers. No one wins, especially the women and children. I'm not sure what I expected, but I am too tired of real life war and human depravity these days to get much entertainment value from reading about it.
I was talking with Andrea and Matt a few weeks ago about the Ransom Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. I found it interesting that Matt focused on the plot, Andrea was commenting on the setting, and I, the internal paradigm shifts of the characters.
Interesting how different people (friends no less) can read the same book and it is as if we were reading 3 different books based on what we latched onto as the central characteristic of the book.
Carter Beats the Devil, for me, has an overwhelming sense of place. It is set in San Fransisco which, in real life, is a facinating place with a strong ora, if there is such a thing.
Ambision, creativity, history, destruction, curiosity, loss, hope, starting over, pretending, questioning. These things are in the soul of that city and are all here in this book.
And let's not forget Oakland, the city that is always trying to be world class but time and time again, falling short.
In fact, typing these things here on my Sidekick make me realize that Carter himself mirrors almost all the qualities of the cities he lives in. Awe mixed with sadness, ambision mixed with tragedy.
Hmmm... maybe I'm still a character person after all.
Be sure to check out Matt's review too.
Circles, cycles, loops, patterns, repetitions, seasons, drops of blood...
Lines, family lines, time lines, story lines, roads, lines that can't be crossed, borders, walls, kite lines, scars, battle lines...
Not sure what else to say besides stories about the depravity of man and the fragility of life are a strong reminder to cherish every good thing and take nothing for granted.
