The
last couple of months have been rather hairy; lots of wonderful
things have happened and, some not so wonderful things have happened
as well. I've been writing sporadically, but have been trying to keep
up on deadlines; so far that has also been sporadic; #IWSG is easier at this time (for you #ROW80
folks who wonder what happened), but I've been practicing more and
reading a lot for the language and tone.
Currently,
I'm reading two different books that couldn't be more unalike in tone
and gravity, but both are simply wonderful. I'm reading “11/22/63”
by Stephen King, recommended by a dear friend.
courtesy:www.liljas-library.com
“11/22/63”
is so much like the Stephen King of old. It is fraught with suspense
and the atmosphere of the 60s is captured perfectly by King, and his
language is again beautiful. His characterizations are sharp and he
has lost the coyness that pissed me off in his later works. You
cannot help but feel for Jake as he tries his damnedest to foil an
assassination that will change the world completely. And as Al,
Jake's mentor says, “With Kennedy alive, there would be no Viet
Nam, no Watergate”, and that lends a desperate quality to Jake's
actions, but he's always thinking and trying to stay one step ahead.
But, not having finished it yet, I have no idea what the foiling of
Oswald's plan will bring about in the present day.
courtesy:www.goodreads.com
“The
Fourth Hand” by John Irving, is much like “A Son of the Circus”
in tone, which I enjoyed immensely. Irving can take the most absurd
situations and make them hilarious, even when they're really pretty
tragic. This book involved Patrick Wallingford, or “the lion-guy”
as everyone calls him, after he has his left hand bitten off, fought
over and eaten by a pack of hungry circus lions in India, while on
assignment. It doesn't get any better for Patrick, or "disaster man" when he takes an
assignment in Japan and his clothes are “sent for a day to the
Philippines, because that always happens”, according to his
Japanese hosts. “They are only misplacing, they will be back.”
says one of the hosts. They come back, but apparently, the Customs
Agents used drug-sniffing dogs and they pissed all over his clothes,
so Irving refers to Wallingford's clothes as “pissed on by Filipino
dogs clothing” throughout the rest of this trip. Wallingford is
used to all of this and just sort of goes along with anything that
happens to him.
This
is another book I haven't finished yet, but it is extremely enjoyable
and Irving's writing is of the type that always makes me laugh. “A Son
of the Circus” was just hilarious, even when it was tragic, again.
The symphony managed to put
on some nice concerts, and we are now in rehearsal for “Swan Lake”
by Tchaikovsky, “The Blue Danube Waltz” by Johann Strauss (I
forget which one) and Franz Liszt's Piano Concerto. It should be a
good one!
