Too real to be fiction

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

from GoodReads:

When Sheila McGann sets out to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburban Boston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about her fractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself.

from  me:
Editing.  Needed editing.  The removal of excess backstory for the major characters and the trimming of a myriad of unimportant descriptions.  At the time of reading (listening) I occasionally thought, "enough already," and later learned that I'd been wrong--the extra detail was necessary in understanding the character. But other times I was right--too much.

Case in point--the youthful Shelia on the boat.  It explained a good bit about what it was like for her growing up in the family and it showed us a picture of the mother and father we needed to see.  But did we really need to hear about the cigarette and beer and the first encounter in the head?   Fun stuff but pure filler, IMHO.

Some people will say I'm full of bull and it had exactly the amount of detail it needed.  I have to admit that as the story drew near the end and I kept wanting it to last longer, I wouldn't have minded a little more detail.  And you know what?  That's great storytelling.  Revealing the details in a tantalizing, somewhat episodic way, not in the order they occurred but in the order you needed to hear them.

Too real to be fiction

Faith by Jennifer Haigh

from GoodReads:

When Sheila McGann sets out to redeem her disgraced brother, a once-beloved Catholic priest in suburban Boston, her quest will force her to confront cataclysmic truths about her fractured Irish-American family, her beliefs, and, ultimately, herself.

from  me:
Editing.  Needed editing.  The removal of excess backstory for the major characters and the trimming of a myriad of unimportant descriptions.  At the time of reading (listening) I occasionally thought, "enough already," and later learned that I'd been wrong--the extra detail was necessary in understanding the character. But other times I was right--too much.

Case in point--the youthful Shelia on the boat.  It explained a good bit about what it was like for her growing up in the family and it showed us a picture of the mother and father we needed to see.  But did we really need to hear about the cigarette and beer and the first encounter in the head?   Fun stuff but pure filler, IMHO.

Some people will say I'm full of bull and it had exactly the amount of detail it needed.  I have to admit that as the story drew near the end and I kept wanting it to last longer, I wouldn't have minded a little more detail.  And you know what?  That's great storytelling.  Revealing the details in a tantalizing, somewhat episodic way, not in the order they occurred but in the order you needed to hear them.

Better than Meh but

Searching the Ruins: Growing Up in WWII Germany

by I.B. Hunger

As Marie Kondo would say, it certainly didn't thrill with pleasure.  It's a good description of a unique time and place and thus needed to be written...but all it did for me is teach me that I didn't particularly need to read it.  It got interesting enough to finish, but I learned only this--humans haven't changed much in 100 years.  There are still mothers and fathers who think an expedient marriage is the best hope for a daughter without fortune.  And many more who don't see the point of wasting a university education on a daughter.

My own parents--in 1976 U.S.--didn't have the money to pay for a college education for either of their kids, but if they had, they wouldn't have preferred the daghter over the son. (I hope)  But in hundred of societies around the world, they would have.

Interesting perspective of the years after the war from a child growing up.  But for a memoir, shallow and unenlightening.

Belated post from last weekend

What a weekend for cooking!  I did myself proud--or shameless--at the farmer's market on Saturday morning; came back and jogged for an hour; then did absolutely no prep work for Sunday.

Sunday was, needless to say, painful.  But I've a fridge full of tasty eats for a week of meals, not to mention a couple of things I totally forgot to prepare.  Another weekend's worth, I hope.

Breakfast today was Oatmeal with Blueberry-Ginger Sauce--promising but not enough salt and honey and ginger flavor to suit my taste.  Very clever way to get chia seeds into your breakfast and not know they're there.

Dinner tonight will be Green-Packed Stir-fry with Quinoa, washed down with a lot of wine. Note to self (and everyone else)--if you can't cut up a chili pepper without choke-coughing, it's hot!  I don't remember what they were, only that they were red and little bigger than the average grocery store Jalapeno.  Probably Anaheim but they're usually quite mild.  I used 1-1/2 rather than the 3 listed in the recipe but it's still pretty scary.





And then lunch--Blackeye Pea Cakes with Collards. Great way to fix greens and a pretty cool way with blackeyes.



All recipes adapted from http://joanne-eatswellwithothers.com/

Bad examples but great Girrrrl

Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature
by Robin Brande

 Being totally unable to finish my current printed book, I've been not allowing myself to start another.  I've finally decided to give up on it and get on with my life.  It's a good book--Japan At War, an Oral History--and I highly recommend it to all history buffs.  In fact I'm not going to completely quit, just move it to the end of the list.

But I did manage to finish an audiobook. A great audiobook.  I'm beginning to think Robin Brande is a genius--she starts out with a lesson to tell but tells it so well you don't really see that you're being lectured.  Like Mary Poppins, she hides her medicine in a spoon full of sugar.

In this case the lesson involves evolution, God, and the separation of church and state.  Plus some on bullying, family problems, puppy love, and the importance of honesty.  She nailed 'em all.

My only complaint--and you need to read it to see if you agree--is with the 'articles' she wrote, in particular the second one.  Was that really a sensible parallel?  It seemed like an absurd interpretation, one that any Biblical scholar--or anyone else--would see as utter nonsense.  That parable--her meaning--no connect.  Even the first article is a bit of a stretch, because selective breeding by humans has been known about forever, although it took Darwin to help explain how nature did the same as humanity. Knowing about selective breeding isn't the same as knowing about natural selection.

Suprised me and I loved it

True Grit

by Charles Portis

In general, I've never felt a fascination for westerns. We kids did used to watch The Lone Ranger and undoubtedly went around whooping and hollering on horses, sixguns popping caps and leaving a trail of outlaw' corpses behind. We didn't have to tie the bodies onto a horse and haul it into town to collect the bounty, because our corpses always stood back up and rejoined the game.

Those were the days, for sure, and this is the perfect book for those days. Innocent and pure-hearted as they come. I didn't once feel a pang of modern conscience sting me as I embraced Mattie Ross and went willingly along on her quest to see her father's murderer hanged or she'd kill him herself.

And that, I believe, is the whole point of literature--living a point of view that would never in a thousand years be yours--and getting it.