quote:We leave home not only to make room for ourselves but to avoid the sight of our elders running out of steam. We don't want to see the consequences of their natures and histories catching up with them and beating them, the closing of the trap of life. Feet of clay will cripple us, too, in our turn. Life's bruises will demythologise us all. The earth gapes. It can wait. There's plenty of time.
Now I remember why I keep telling people that this is one of my favourite books. Maybe it's my favourite.
It sounds too depressing for me to read in my current mood. I have a hard enough time dealing with growing away from my family without worrying about why... And confronting the fact that they'll die someday.
That said, it was beautiful writing. And I want to be the first to brag on pseudo-hobbit's behalf that she has a book signed by Salmon Rushdie. (I believe)
Edit: Freudian slip... I said I'll where I meant they'll.
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Rushdie could make a shopping list sound beautiful. And I don't mean that to denigrate him - his use of language is just gorgeous. I read his op-eds just to hear how he says things.
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I'm reading Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven right now. After which I shall read The Business of Fancydancing and then Ten Little Indians -
the first on the list is decribed as "dark comedy" - with the subject matter, I guess it couldn't be defined in any other way -
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That passage hit me pretty hard; in a sense I missed my chance to complete my getaway in time and so now I must bear witness to... well. But there are lots of other lovely passages. Some are even happy.
I love that this book is about love and rock. I like dark comedies, but this isn't one and now is not the time for me to be reading them.
But how to resolve my rocker's block? Perhaps the remaining two hundred pages will show me the way.
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