Archives for February 2011

It is my suggestion that all books come with a warning.

Let me just admit that I am a tender soul. I am easily horrified and once I have read, seen, or heard something horrible, it is very hard for me to forget. For example, I have never seen The Blair Witch Project but I am still tortured by my brother’s frame by frame description of it delivered as I begged him to shut up while trying to block my eardrums with my fingers. I could give you many other examples but I am trying hard to forget them.

I chose this book based on the cover. Don’t they look happy? Much to my chagrin, by page 60, I had already suffered through beheadings, gang rape, and internment camps. Don’t you think somebody should have alluded to these things on the book jacket? I don’t need this nonsense. If I want to experience torture, I’ll start watching the news again. I read for entertainment. Exploding body parts are only entertaining to 19 year old boys which I ain’t.

I should have known though. The other book I have read by the author, Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was all about foot binding. Which, honestly, is way more terrible than it sounds and it sounds pretty awful.

Is this a good book? Yep.

Is it interesting? You betcha.

Is it worth the trauma? Nope.

I think this book is important.

I think there are some deep literary truths in this book.

But I’ll be damned if I know what they are.

This was an Oprah pick. I used to read all of Oprah’s books and, honestly, the gal never let me down. Then she got into all that quasi-spiritual Eckhart Tolle mumbo jumbo and I just stopped paying much attention to her book club. When she announced this title, I put it on hold at the library and waited patiently while every other person in Mt Juliet read it.

It was actually worth waiting for. The main story is about the courtship, marriage and breakup of your average American couple. Walter and Patty Berglund meet in college, marry, start a family and settle in Minnesota. They have two kids. Everything is pretty boring. THE WAY GOD INTENDED IT. (Let me just interject a little bit here. Boring is not nearly as bad as everyone claims it is. I mean only that constant drama and creating tempests in teapots is not really necessary. Kevin and I can talk for two hours straight about carbohydrate metabolism. Jealous, ain’t ya? My point is that you can have a lively, interesting life that may appear dull and boring to others.)

This family has your usual ups and downs until a crisis causes the mom to seek counseling. She is advised to write her life story as a therapy. Most of the novel is her story. It’s fun to read. You kind of love and hate Patty Berglund. Which I’m guessing would be true of any of us should we choose to bare our real selves in such a way.

Then a lot of stuff happens. I don’t know how else to say it. The book is just chock full of stuff happening. Some of it is moving and wonderful. Some of it is just…odd.

It strange to say but the thing I feel Johnathan Franzen really achieved with this novel is to lay bare the nature of matrimonial love. He allows the reader to witness the birth, adolescence, death, and rebirth of Walter and Patty’s love.

I really did enjoy reading this even though I was often confused. It’s altogether possible that I am just dumber than I thought. But even if I missed the point Franzen was trying to make, I liked the novel regardless.