I have two goals this summer (probably more, but as I read this morning, multitasking is bad. So let's keep it simple.):
1.) do a good job at my research job for IHL (Institutions for Higher Learning in Mississippi), and
2.) read a book every 1 or 2 weeks.
I think blogging about the books I read will help both goals. The first, by offering me a fun way to take a break and be rejuvenated to do my Internet searching (and imminent phone calling; I am putting that off for now); and the second, by providing a place for me to talk about these books. Facebook seems like too shallow and too quick of a mode of broadcasting. I fear if I rely on FB to reflect on the books I read, it'll be a "look at me! I'm reading!" kind of announcement, and also I will waste at least 20 minutes and plenty of brain space while posting, getting distracted with other people's pages and statuses, etc. So blogging will keep me clear-minded and focused on the task at hand: reflecting on said book.
OK, so this book I bought in Oxford, MS, during a Memorial Day road trip with my friend E. We visited Square Books on our leisurely day off.
A national bestseller right now, with a fun title and even more fun cover, with an appealing color scheme and graphic design, I picked it up unthinkingly in a bookstore. I would compare my book selection process to a kid in a specialty candy store: she chooses what looks most appealing in that moment. Well, this is the tactic I've used for a long time, dating back to my girlhood, browsing our hometown's stellar public library's YA fiction shelves. Anyway, much to my chagrin, as I occupied myself in Square Books while E and T were off elsewhere shopping, I found myself 10 pages in and needing to buy it. Fifteen dollars on a book that looks silly and petty and might as well be chick lit (that's what the title and cover might have you believe)! I thought to myself.
But the writing is actually superb, and the plot is rich. It follows a girl from age 9 to 22, and how she detects her mother's secrets and affair through her cooking. The main character can taste emotions and also has special insight into her father's passivity and her brother's retreat from/inability to function in reality. She is the member of the family that is closest to all members. Throughout the book, you see how the girl really understands the core of each person: father, mother, and brother. And each of these people knows it. They look to her as a special source of wisdom, and they trust her, each on a one-on-one basis. I love the plot particularly because it disbands the myth of the small, functional family, and shows how quickly human relationships become complex. It also dispels the myth of the inconsolable dysfunctional family. Here is a family that is familiar to me: off the charts in oddities, and things preferred to keep hushed to outsiders, but also, deep in knowledge of each other, and soft and tender in that particular juncture of the knowing. I am terribly predictable in my affinity for and penchant to cheer for the daughter/sister character who is in an unusual position for affecting her elders, or at the very least, who is in an unusual position for bonding with her male family members.
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