Meredith had been recommending this book to me for a long time before I finally got around to it. The story was really unusual and I'm glad I read it.
The story follows Jackson, a Jewish boy growing up in Mississippi, into adulthood. Growing up in the 1960's, he sees a lot around segregation and Civil Rights, and befriends some black children his age. In particular, he harbors a childhood crush on Katherine Marie, and fondly remembers childhood exploits with Lil' Bokay. As an adult, he marries Stella, a young woman from Boston which may as well be a million miles away from the Mississippi he grew up in. Spanning three decades, the story evolves an unusual set of relationships among these four people.
Glickman's attention to detail in her character development was a delight to read - she puts her characters in very specific circumstances that show their characteristics and development. Her alternating different time periods was a good way of keeping me interested and wanting to know both what was going to happen as well as what had happened.
What I liked the most, however, was how well she was able to capture the feeling of being a newer, younger, generation.
I notice Glickman has a second novel out that I will add to my list of books to read.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War by Deb Olin Unferth
This memoir is about something that would never, ever, happen to me.
While in college in the late 1980's, Deb Olin Unfirth decides to drop out of school and follow her boyfriend to Central America. They were in search of a revolution to join, and it wasn't until they arrived that they figured out how difficult it was to find politically significant work.
The number of ways that is different from my life is barely countable. Of course I would never have dropped out of school, particularly not to follow a guy, and I wouldn't have gone to Central America even if I had. Sure, I like travel and have been to some parts of the world that other people would find risky, but not without my American passport (xeroxed, carried by me and my traveling companion, as well as stored in my Gmail account), credit card (safely xeroxed as well as alerted one week ahead of time to my international travel), and Immodium A/D (both in my daypack and back at the hotel). That was not how Deb traveled.
Her story is the opposite of all that - she lived with complete uncertainty, hopeful to find some civil war to assist with, riddled with diarrhea and bug bites, expired visas and no money, and several other maladies that would have sent me home immediately. She was also struggling to figure out her relationship with her boyfriend / fiance who proposes to her in El Salvador but seems to be lacking some of the earnest commitment she herself has. Her newfound Christianity further complicated her already-complex relationship with her otherwise typical Jewish American family.
I enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading it each night. It's told somewhat non-linearly, not as a factual depiction of what happened, but as a reverie on her experiences. In the later chapters, she also depicts her return to Central America on subsequent visits, inserting some space for reflection on her younger self.
While in college in the late 1980's, Deb Olin Unfirth decides to drop out of school and follow her boyfriend to Central America. They were in search of a revolution to join, and it wasn't until they arrived that they figured out how difficult it was to find politically significant work.
The number of ways that is different from my life is barely countable. Of course I would never have dropped out of school, particularly not to follow a guy, and I wouldn't have gone to Central America even if I had. Sure, I like travel and have been to some parts of the world that other people would find risky, but not without my American passport (xeroxed, carried by me and my traveling companion, as well as stored in my Gmail account), credit card (safely xeroxed as well as alerted one week ahead of time to my international travel), and Immodium A/D (both in my daypack and back at the hotel). That was not how Deb traveled.
Her story is the opposite of all that - she lived with complete uncertainty, hopeful to find some civil war to assist with, riddled with diarrhea and bug bites, expired visas and no money, and several other maladies that would have sent me home immediately. She was also struggling to figure out her relationship with her boyfriend / fiance who proposes to her in El Salvador but seems to be lacking some of the earnest commitment she herself has. Her newfound Christianity further complicated her already-complex relationship with her otherwise typical Jewish American family.
I enjoyed this book and looked forward to reading it each night. It's told somewhat non-linearly, not as a factual depiction of what happened, but as a reverie on her experiences. In the later chapters, she also depicts her return to Central America on subsequent visits, inserting some space for reflection on her younger self.
WWW: Watch by Robert Sawyer
The second book in Sawyer's WWW trilogy, this one continued where WWW:Wake had left off. After blind teenage Caitilin receives an experimental device to help her see, she figures out that this device has also given her access to a being that exists in the consciousness of the World Wide Web. As national security organizations start to notice strange patters in the Web, and as the consciousness grows in its sophistication, several ethical and practical issues start to arise.
Caitlin remains a likable protagonist, brave and down-to-earth. Like the first book, this one still feels like a YA novel, although given the recent success of both the Twilight books and the Hunger Games books, that isn't a knock.
Sometimes when I read trilogies, I can see how the author's style or point of view changed between writing the individual books. For WWW, this is not the case - Sawyer seems to have had a strong idea of where the story was going and just continued more of the same - which is a good thing. I found a great interview with Sawyer that addresses some of his thoughts on the themes in the trilogy as well as whether it is a YA book or not.
WWW:Wonder is staring at me every day, waiting for me to experience the end of the triology.
Caitlin remains a likable protagonist, brave and down-to-earth. Like the first book, this one still feels like a YA novel, although given the recent success of both the Twilight books and the Hunger Games books, that isn't a knock.
Sometimes when I read trilogies, I can see how the author's style or point of view changed between writing the individual books. For WWW, this is not the case - Sawyer seems to have had a strong idea of where the story was going and just continued more of the same - which is a good thing. I found a great interview with Sawyer that addresses some of his thoughts on the themes in the trilogy as well as whether it is a YA book or not.
WWW:Wonder is staring at me every day, waiting for me to experience the end of the triology.
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