Monday, June 22, 2009

Book one: Finished (oh and Book two as well)

Saturday night, I finally finished Persuasion (and I dropped it off at the public library Sunday). I enjoy reading Jane Austen because her literature takes you back to a very specific time that is incredibly different than the instant gratification that we have today. If we want to talk to someone we send them a text, we don't walk to their house and leave them a card to propose a time to talk. I think that Austen's style is absolutely romantic. However, like I said prior to finishing, I was not a fan of Anne Elliot. I am also not sure of the message Jane is trying to convey in the juxtaposition of characters in Persuasion. I will most likely have to roll that story around in my mind, and hopefully have some sort of practical application of it. I also felt like the story dragged a lot, with little moments of any thick plot going on. I am curious if anyone else feels this way about Persuasion?

I also finished reading The Lovely Bones on Sunday. This book, although dark, reminded me that the dead never really leave us. They live on in our memories and imaginations. This book follows a girl who at 14 years old is murdered. She is watching from heaven as her family and friends cope with her death, meanwhile she watches them grow up and experience all the things she never did. Although most of the story is pretty heavy, the ending is happy.

It got me thinking about the death of my grandpa. He was an Ex-POW in WWII. He was caught, captured, and survived the Bataan Death March. He is the reason that anytime I watch a movie about WW2, I cry like a baby. The conditions under which he lived through are absolutely horrifying. But to me, he was always the man who gave me folded up pieces of legal sized paper to draw with. I would sit in a chair next to his recliner, or at the table in the den, and draw with a ball point pen while he read or played solitaire. He would give me peanuts but always remind me not to eat too much because I would get a stomach ache. I would go pick black berries and grapes, and he would always take me out to the watermelon patch in the backyard. He kept score playing solitaire by hand. I never understood this. Sitting next to him at the table, he would have a folded up piece of paper next to him with tiny scores on them. I never understood how he kept score playing solitaire... He died of lung cancer when I was in my late teens. And his funeral.... I've never cried that hard in my entire life.

Overall, The Lovely Bones was a good book. I actually just saw on IMDB that they are making a movie out of the book staring Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Susan Sarandon. Also, the movie is being directed by Peter Jackson, ya know the guy who did a little trilogy called, Lord of the Rings. The movie comes out in December of this year.

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