Into the Light

Yay! I'm very excited to be back on my computer. We had a power blackout that lasted about 24 hours on my street because a transformer blew out in my neighbor's yard. I was scared that I was missing somthing crucial, but I checked my email and learned that I hadn't missed anything at all.

I finished The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver. I haven't read anything else by her, but I could see what Alyssa meant when she wrote that it was obviously an early work (heavily paraphrasing). It's a simple story, simply told. I started thinking with a Southern accent, which is always a good sign (I like any excuse to think with a Southern accent). I liked her style for the most part, except for her habit of ending a section by tacking on a metaphor about a bird in a tree or whatever. I'm excited to see how she grows in The Poisonwood Bible.

I've also started reading The Corrections. Possibly a bad idea after Kingsolver. Their writing styles are very different, and I keep thinking that Franzen is making everything way too convoluted. It's not pretty the way De Bernieres is pretty, but more artsy and modern stream-of-consciousy. I don't know if I'm meshing with it right now. So to take a break from it, I'm rereading The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope, a book from my childhood that I love. I'm also reading it to counteract the effect of reading Princess Academy, a book I bought on a whim for Alyssa. Never judge a book by its pretty pastel cover. Or its book flap. It wasn't terrible, but it didn't really accomplish what it wanted to do. The characters were wooden, the plot contrived, and the ending...can we say deux ex machina (pronounce it properly for me, Laura, because I can't manage it)? Ok, maybe not quite. But it was lame-o. I apologize, Alyssa. I like to be spontaneous and choose books at random, but sometimes it just doesn't work out.