Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Schlagobers und Blut

I did not think it was possible for a human being to be this tired. And it’s not as if I didn’t sleep last night, *or* catch a nap this morning before work. It’s The Alien within, I know it is. All that growing of fingernails and kidneys and spinal columns is wiping out its host!

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I finished The Hotel New Hampshire last night. What a read. John Irving has such a good touch with all the weirdness in this book – you never feel as if he’s being weird just to *be* weird. Every last bit of weirdness is 1) completely believable in the context of the story, and 2) absolutely necessary in the context of the story. That said, though, I do think his earlier stuff – Garp, Hotel New Hampshire - is his brilliant stuff. His later stuff – esp. Fourth Hand – is straining to be weird because that’s what his readers have come to expect. Cider House Rules and Owen Meany are good books, but dancing on that hairy edge, to mix my metaphors. I will indeed read his new one coming out this summer, though.

I must see the movie now, if only to see Jodie Foster as Franny, although apparently it's a really bad movie. It's probably because there's *so much* in the book and it cannot possibly all be captured or dealt with in a two-hour film - like trying to make a decent movie out of something like Pat Conroy's Prince of Tides and destroying it in the process.

I realized I have never read Son of the Circus. I tend to enjoy novels about India, as its culture and history fascinate me – Midnight’s Children ranks right up there, as does A Fine Balance. So I should probably read this, although this Publishers’ Weekly review from Amazon does give me pause for thought:
Though there are flashes here of the dramatic verve of The World According to Garp and Cider House Rules , Irving's long-awaited eighth novel is generally a tedious affair: rambling; lacking suspense; devoid of energetic or lyric prose; sometimes verging on farce and other times almost as lethargic as the sultry atmosphere of Bombay, where it is set.

I want to wait just a bit though – two John Irving novels in the space of three months is enough.

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The guilt of motherhood:

This morning I dropped the boys off at daycare and Jude CRIED and CRIED. He loves his teacher, he only goes two days a week, and those two days are not very long days. But his separation anxiety phase must be kicking in. He cried “Mama! Mommy! Mommy!” while doing that little motion with his hands – arms outstretched towards me, fingers beckoning me back to him – I thought I’d implode with guilt right there. Even the idea of a picnic lunch and a trip to Dairy Queen to celebrate the first day of summer did nothing to assuage his grief. I left, knowing it must be really bad though, if the mention of ice cream didn’t help. How do full-time working moms do it? Thank God I’m lucky enough that I don’t have to – my guilt gland couldn’t stand anymore. It’s six hours later and I still feel awful.

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Remember: Sorrow floats.

5 comments:

Katy said...

A Son of the Circus is by John Irving?!?!?! I really liked that book (read it about four or five years ago) and now that you mention it, I should read more books set in India. But I read something else by him at the very beginning of my freshman year @ CMU that another girl on my floor loaned me, and I *hated* it. I read fast, but didn't have much time to devote to it, and it took forever. She had raved about how great it was so I felt guilty if I tried to give up and just return it to her. Maybe I don't hate Irving as much as I thought that I did.

No, I don't remember what that book was that I disliked so much, I do remember that it was a green-turquoise stone-like cover, trade paperback size and didn't make any sense, and it was dull too. Usually, I don't remember books in that great of detail without remembering the titles, but this one sat on my dresser for probably a month or six weeks before I finished slogging through it, taunting me with its unread state.

Sorry for the long comment... but definitely read Son of the Circus.

BabelBabe said...

Sounds like my copy of Owen Meany...if it was, good book but a bit didactic.

I will go buy SOTC post-haste.

Katy said...

I think that a few of his books have very similar covers with different titles on them. It wasn't Owen Meany, I remember that being an option in 12th grade AP English... but I chose Stones from the River... and it was very good.

BabelBabe said...

Stones from the River is one of my favorite books ever. Every time I see a used copy cheap I buy it because I give it away to people all the time.

Peg said...

Val, I'll happily send you my paperback of Son of the Circus. I enjoyed it but it's one of my Irvings that I'd part with. If you send it back, great; if you don't, that's OK too. (On the other hand, my copy of A Widow For One Year you'd have to pry out of my cold dead hands first. I still can't go back to it yet; and I think my love for it also has to do with when and where I was when I read it, but that's OK.)

If you want it, send me your mailing address via email: pegele03 at yahoo dot com. (And if you have any concerns I'm sure Mr. Boevers will vouch for me.)