Aug 9--Fog

My review of Aug 9--Fog on NewCity!

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

What a absolute pleasure it was to read Commonwealth by Ann Patchett.  It felt like one of those books that was written just for me, and I was very, very sad when it was over.  I think I couldn't read that book for the rest of my life.  The first chapter, for one thing, is as exquisit as any writing you'll ever read.  It could stand alone as a perfect short story.  But then, (mini-spoiler) the tone dramatically changes and the second chapter is ANOTHER amazing piece of story telling. Then the third, then the fourth.  Those first four chapters, I'm not kidding, you, I was in AWE.

It sort of has a JD Salinger quality, in that the family in the story is similar to the Glasses - each person is so interesting and Patchett writes about them with so much love and affection.  Even the ones who are dicking around become beloved.  The excitement I felt when Franny was staying with her older, famous, author boyfriend in the Hamptons and their guests are being awful and she's just dumped the lobsters in the sea and boyfriend's horrible daughter is about to arrive - I was on pins and needles.

And Teresa! 

He is fifteen and ten and five. He is an instant. He is flying back to her. He is hers again. She feels the weight of him in her chest as he comes into her arms. He is her son, her beloved child, and she takes him back.  

And Holly!  And Jeannette's husband!  I loved those people deeply. Can't wait to read more by Patchett.

Less, by Andrew Sean Greer

Less was such an enjoyable read - I really loved every page, and I loved the way the story was structured with (Arthur) Less trying to outrun the marriage of his former boyfriend by traveling to all these different countries.  My favorite happened to be Germany, because Less suffers from a similar delusion as me - that he's very good at speaking a foreign language, although everyone responds to him with some amount of alarm of not understanding him.  There's even a line that perfectly encapsulates my own philosophy on speaking a foreign language.  "The key to speaking a new language,"she told them, "is to be bold instead of perfect."  That led to another bit that just slayed me:

He kisses--how do I explain it? Like someone in love. Like he has nothing to lose. Like someone who has just learned a foreign language and can only use the present tense and only the second person. Only now, only you. There are some men who have never been kissed like that. There are some men who discover, after Arthur Less, that they never will be again.

Swoon!

Another part that I thought about for a long time was this:

... As an areligious WASP, he had no idea what to do about death. Two thousand years of flaming Viking boats and Celtic rites and Irish wakes and Puritan worship and Unitarian hymns, and still he was left with nothing.

It is such an interesting fact how difficult it is to process a death. You'd think it would be more of our muscle memory after our long histories. 

Much to my surprise, I found myself reading a love story - I haven't really read one in such a long time, and it was an absolute delight.  Mini Spoiler - I loved how the third person narrator slowly revealed his own personality and became a mystery and then suddenly it became very obvious who he was.