Book 1: Richard Russo: Bridge of Sighs

OH, what a great book to start the year. Exactly what fiction should do: explore the details of a made up life to let us see what is in our real life.

My favorite quote from the book is currently my e-mail signature

"The one life we're left with is sufficient to fill and refill our imperfect hearts with joy, and then to shatter them. And it never, ever lets up. Blame love"

This is a book about divisions and how those divisions are crossed. It's about innocence and realism. The book is set in a small New England town where an old mill used to be the center of economic activity but is now closed (ah, typical Russo!). The town is divided into East and West with Division street the boundary. The protagonist, Lou, starts life on 1 side of town and ends up moving to the other side. The book unfolds as Lou is writing an autobiography; although there are 3rd person narratives of some of the other key players. The central event of Lou's life was when he was a kid and a group of bullies locked him in an old chest near a river (after he crossed a bridge). He ended up having the first of many spells where he just drifts away and is lost for a while. 

There are just so many conflicts and tensions in this book; not all are resolved. The recurring motif of divisions and bridges really interested me. One of  the key physical divisions is in an old park that has a wrought iron fence running around it. Lou spends many days with the caretaker of the park painting and keeping the fence in good shape.

Another central tension is innocence v. experience. Lou's dad (Big Lou) is a true innocent and just doesn't see the bad in people and can't figure out why bad things happen. Lou's mother is much more experienced and spends much of her life trying to navigate their lives through the reality of life. Lots of problems and challenges. Lou ends up being more like his dad than his mom.

Lou's best childhood friendship is also problematic and plays itself out through the entire book.

This is definitely 4.5 stars.

As I re-read my notes here it is apparent I need to work on my writing skills. I hope a little practice and writing up my notes soon after I read the book will help.

8 more books: My 2009 New Year's Resolutions

8-5-3-2 more or less

• Read 8 more books
• Lose 5 more pounds
• Floss 3 times a week
• Brush 2 minutes a day
• Give more; take less (at work I say that means give more guff; take less back talk). This is problematic because it doesn't meet one of my criteria: it isn't measurable

The Books

I was an English major in college but got away from reading. I remember in the 80's I read some of the new fiction (Less Than Zero) and some Thomas McGuane. I just got turned off by the protagonists going through hard times only to end up dead on the last page. I just go bummed out. I ended up reading more non-fiction; some religious stuff and history; and others. I'll go back and recap my 2008 list in later posts.

But this year, I thought I'd try rediscovering fiction and exploring life from that point of view. I plan to make at least 1/2 my list novels or short story collections.

It's early February and I'm on my 3rd book - Couples by John Updike. This has been on my shelf since college but I've never really gotten around to reading it. I figured now is the time. John Updike died recently and I've listened to a number of past interviews with him (Fresh Air, On Point with Tom Ashbrook). Listening to Updike talk really brought back to me what fiction is all about: exploring a made up life in order to show ourselves what our real lives are about. And Updike's focus on description; on making every word the right word, brought back to me the idea of the artistry of writing: it really is an art form.

 

Purpose - My 2008 New Year's Resolutions

A year ago - December 2007 I decided to take New Year's resolutions seriously; which is really, REALLY not like me. But surprise, surprise; I established some measurable goals and tried through the year to follow up on them. Some of them are personal (well all of them are personal) but one of them I thought might be a good point for discussion and give-and-take. And I plan to write about more than just my resolutions.

My resolution for 2008 was 8, 5, 4, 3. I wanted my resolutions to be easy to remember, measurable, and attainable. The numbers meant:

 

- Read 8 books. Status: Success: I read 11 books

- Lose 5 pounds: Status: Success: I was down 15 pounds during the year; ended up 10 pounds lighter at the end of the year

- Brush my teeth 4 minutes a day. Status: Not successful: Two - 2 minute sessions is TOO much; I couldn't keep it up and actually hurt my teeth with my electric tooth brush

- Floss 3 times a week. Status: Not successful: Probably averaged 2wice a month. 

So, reading that you probably figure you don't want to stand too close to me when we talk. Interesting that I picked two items involving my mouth.

Want I want to do in this blog is discuss the books I've read, but I figure I'll be all over the board and talk about food and other things of interest.