Things Fall Apart

Just finished Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion - a collection of essays mostly from the mid to late 1960's... It struck me again and again how prescient it was for what's going on today, and what happened to her later in life. It is a little dated in places, but her comments about Vegas, Sacramento, the generation of "Flower" Children who lost their way, some strange, sad tales that run now 24-7 on CNN, loving NYC and turning from it at the same time - they all felt valid and contemporary.

Didion's got a clear, unsentimental voice that really appeals to me. I admire her writer's view of herself - she doesn't flatter herself - she's out there, doing this journalism that is sometimes a clipped stream of consciousness. She is a carefully reflective writer (which I'm a sucker for) and I particularly like one of her last essays about her time in NYC before she met her husband. It is melancholic, and wishful, but there's a coldness to her reflection that you don't read or hear very much anymore. I want to say it's old school masculine, but the feminist in me, thinks that must not be true.

Her introduction to the essays in this book also won me over - where is writing's place today? Where are the thoughts? The energy? I know this is old fogeyish and I'm not that old, but I wonder with her - have television, video games unplugged our brains for good? Alcohol, drugs, mindless entertainment - have the vast majority of us checked out, unintentionally, like the end of the Flower Generation before us?

laura

looking for green

Just finished Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver - not a new book, I know, but I've just got this jonesing for Springtime....still kind of cool here with your random unwelcome snowstorm thrown in, and there are just enough warm days to give you that little thrill that things will turn green again. I tried to read this a couple of years ago and didn't care for it - seemed to obviously aimed at the "mature" female reader. Maybe I've become a mature female reader; because the language of the book really turned me on this time. Women attempting to farm, women alone in the forest watching coyotes, women running orchards, raising children, women who think they're doing this alone, but are not.

I'm not much into reviewing books, and definitely don't want to just do plot summaries. I think to keep myself happy and interested in this blog, I'll just jot down random thoughts about the book. I think I really just intend this as a way to mark down what I've read and keep myself going on as a reader.

Laura