If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern. - Ursula K. LeGuin

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Remnants

Two things have stayed with me from our camping/hiking vacation.  The first is my bruised toe nails:

They don't hurt anymore but every time I look at my feet I think about our hikes.


The other is this book that I read while hanging out in the campsite.  The book is written by the first boy to ever ask me out on a date.  It was in sixth grade and he asked me to go see Annie with him.  The date and the romance never happened (good reasons for both) but a good friendship did.  We were friends through middle school and high school.  After high school I lost touch with just about everyone.  Then last year he found me on Facebook.  He is now living in Australia and working as a psychiatric nurse and, it appears, writing amazing books.


The book was not available in the US when he first contacted me and then when it became available I was busy with the semester.  Since summertime is when I do most of my fun reading I thought it would be a great read for a vacation.  


The book is a series of connected short stories but reads more like a novel.  The protagonist ages across the stories and there is a sense of progression and of narrative throughout the book that is never actually stated.  Reviews mention the sparseness and the humanity of his writing.  I would say both are right on.  It is a post-apocalyptic novel/series of stories and sometimes rather grim but mostly what I took from it is what it means to be a survivor and how we are all struggling to survive in a world we don't quite get. 


If you are looking for something to read this summer, this is definitely it. 

2 comments:

Julie said...

The toenails look painful! That's definitely not the kind of souvenir to bring back home...ouch. I'm glad they don't hurt anymore.

Now, for the book. It looks completely awesome. I just read the synopsis and was hooked with the description of "The Theft That Got Me Here." I also like the idea of seeing the narrator age as the stories progress. Being a book nerd, I get excited when somebody tells me about a good book. I will add it to my ever growing list. Thank you!

Drax said...

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH.