A follow-up to yesterday’s
column on recommending books:
Helen started recommending
Donna Tartt’s The Gold Finch when she
was about 200 pp into its several thousand pp. [It only seems that way; it’s “only”
771. By contrast, the standard version of To
Kill a Mockingbird has 296.]
Now she is sorry she did
and is re-contacting the friends to whom she made the recommendation. She just
got depressed by the main character’s downward spiral and decided she didn’t
want to read any more about it.
I personally am glad I
worked my way through all 771 pp. Tartt writes beautifully, both in style and
use of words, and in ability to tell a story. I understand why it won the 2014
Pulitzer. I also understand why Helen got depressed reading it.
As usual with me, I read
Tartt’s 2nd book, Gold Finch,
first. I’m not sure I’ll read her first, The
Secret History, which was published clear back in 1992.
Chase Mooney, who was
history professor of The South at Indiana University, had never read Gone With the Wind, despite its obvious
importance to history of the South, because he refused to read anything over
600 pp. He said, “If an author can’t tell the story in fewer than 600 pp, it’s
not worth reading.”
To Kill a Mockingbird is also important to the history of the South, and
Mooney could have read it twice.
I’m not sure I agree with
Mooney, but Gold Finch might have
been better at 599 pp.
John
Robert McFarland
BTW,
Today I am a 25 year cancer survivor. My first oncologist gave me “a year of
two.” I report my 25 years not to brag, but because I remember that in those
first 2 years, the best thing that happened was when we’d meet someone who
said, “Oh, yes, I’m a 20 year survivor,” or “I know a 20 year survivor.” So if
you know cancer patients, tell them about me! [Or give them a copy of the book
noted below.]
Daughter
Katie Kennedy’s Learning to Swear in
America will be published by J. K. Rowling’s publisher, Bloomsbury Press,
in 2016.
My
novel, VETS, about four handicapped
and homeless Iraqistan veterans who are accused of murdering a VA doctor, will
be published by Black Opal Books in 2015.
I tweet as yooper1721.
I also write Christ in
Winter: Reflections on Faith from a Place of Winter for the Years of Winter. http://christinwinter.blogspot.com/
NOW THAT I HAVE CANCER I AM WHOLE: Reflections on Life
and Healing for Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them [AndrewsMcMeel & HarperAudio, with Czech and
Japanese translations] Paul K. Hamilton, MD, the co-founder of CanSurmount,
called it “The best book for cancer patients, by a cancer patient, ever.”
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