Cutting Through the Pages

I finished Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese!  All told, this was a good book, but not one that I am likely to recommend to friends.  For me, I think that there were two problems:  first it should have been a 300 page book instead of 536 pages, and second, I heard about the end at The Typical Book Group meeting, so I wasn't surprised.

Know that I am not opposed to long books.  In fact, I love books that are long enough to sink into my thoughts so that I dream about them.  But this book really didn't have enough story to justify the 500+ pages.  My friend, Romy, sent me a message saying that her jaw dropped on page 509.  I later realized that she was reading the paperback, and that in the hardcover, my jaw should have dropped on page 415.  It did not.  It took a long time to get to know and like the characters, but eventually it did happen.  I also liked reading about Africa again, and was oddly pleased that the characters in Cutting felt the same way about Khartoum as Achak Deng felt about it in What is the What.  At the end though, Marion, the main character, does things that are entirely inconsistent with the person who we have read that he is. 

If I hadn't heard about the end of the book at my book group, I probably would have found it more powerful.  This has to have jaded my opinion to some extent, so forgive me for being too harsh on this book if you loved it.

Next up:  After Dark by Haruki Murakami.  I've had Norwegian Wood  by Murakami on my TBR list since last June when I was only reading books set in Paris to prepare for my trip.  What does Norwegian Wood have to do with Paris?  Funny you should ask.  One of the books that I read was The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barberry.  Elegance is the story of a woman who is a concierge for an exclusive apartment building in Paris.  When an apartment opens up, a Japanese businessman, Kakuro Ozu, moves in and takes an interest in our concierge.  As I was reading, I couldn't help imagining that Kakuro Ozu was really Haruki Murakami.  So while my more MILF-y friends were fantacizing about Edward from Twilight, I was dreaming about a Japanese writer who is my father's age, and who likes running so much that he actually writes about it.  Huh.  Anyhow, Norwegian Wood was checked out of my library, so I will be satisifying my Murakami craving with After Dark. 

Still listening to:  Three Junes by Julia Glass

The Typical Book Group Report

I came up with a new name for my first book group. You may remember that I was calling it "The Eclectic Book Group", until I realized that lots of book groups call themselves that. Then, I joined another book group, which I am calling my "Friends Book Group", because the members of that book group are also members of a parent support group called "Friends of Different Learners." People who live or work with different learners refer to kids who you may think of as "normal" as "typical learners" or "typical children". Because the members of my first book group are not united by our parentage of different learners, I have decided to refer to the first book group as "The Typical Book Group".

The Typical Book Group met tonight to discuss Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  There were 8 of us at the meeting, including 5 who had finished the book.  Despite my best efforts, and reading for many hours over the rainy weekend, I went to the meeting with 103 pages left to read.  The people who had finished Cutting loved it, but the people who had not were less enthusiastic.  Apparently, an incredible amount of action happens in the last 100 pages of the hardcover book, (maybe the last 150 of the paperback?) and everything is tied together in the end. 

I will keep reading, as I've finally gotten to a part where the book is hard to put down.  It seems strange that a book should take 400 pages to get to that point though.  If this wasn't a book club book, I would have given up before now.

Next up:  Our BFB for the summer is Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery.  Each year we chose a Big Fat Book (BFB) to read over the summer.  We'll meet next in August.

Still Listening To:  Three Junes by Julia Glass

The Russian Rapper

Picture an obscenely overweight rapper in New York City.  Now picture him white, and from Russsia.  Now picture him with full access to his Beloved Papa's bank account, which is full of Papa's post-communist, new-capitalist/gangster riches.  Now picture him surrounded by women who want him.  And there you have Misha Vainberg.

Misha is the well intentioned protagonist of Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart.  Misha wants nothing more than to get back to New York and his ghetto girlfriend ("ghetto" intended as a complimentary adjective here), but his Papa has insured that the US will not issue him another visa. To avoid this obstacle, Misha attempts to become a Belgian citizen, but on the way, finds himself stuck in Absurdistan.  Republika Absurdisvani, as it is formally known, is a country created by Shteyngart, which is located somewhere between Russia and Belgium, but near Iran. 

In Absurdistan, Misha learns more about his Papa than he probably wanted to know, and confronts some issues that he had buried deep inside his toxic hump of flesh.  The country, in a parody of our Iraq war, is run by Halliburton (known to the Absurdi as "Golly Burton") and other defense contractors, with the ultimate goal of getting the US and its funds more financially invested. 

All told, I really liked this book, and especially the character of Misha.  As I was reading, I couldn't help but think that this will be made into a movie starring Zach Galifiankis.  IMDb, however, says that a movie named "Absurdistan" came out in 2008.  From reading that plot line, they either completely slaughtered Shteyngart's book, or it is based on an entirely different story.

Next Up:  Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese.  This book has 536 pages in the hardcover version (more in paperback!) and my book group meets on May 17 to discuss it.  The odds that I will be done by then are quite slim . . .

Listening to:  Three Junes by Julia Glass