Books

I should have taken advice from Doppelganger (which she got from TryHarder), because when I try to review a book I read more than  a month ago, I kind of lose track of ever wonderful, insightful, incisive, witty comment I intended to make (and you can be sure they were there, dear reader, they've just been forgotten!). So. This summer I read A Ship Made of Paper by Scott Spencer, and I enjoyed it. I can't remember much about it, except that I found some of the writing just this side of good but bordering on corny, like this:

It's fine with Daniel. He welcomes the chance to do fatherly things with the little girl, and those ten morning minutes with dear little four-year-old Ruby, with her deep soulful eyes, and the wondrous things she sees with them, and her deep soulful voice, and the precious though not entirely memorable things she says with it, and the smell of baby shampoo and breakfast cereal filling the car, that little shimmering capsule of time is like listening to cello music in the morning, or watching birds in a flutter of industry building a nest, it simply reminds you that even if God is dead, or never even existed in the first place, there is, nevertheless, something tender at the center of creation, some meaning, some purpose and poetry.

I like that stuff, although Spencer's refusal to use even one semicolon in the whole freaking book disturbed me to no end. Who the heck edited this thing? All punctuation matters aside, however, it's a love story, and a good one. I was glad that I didn't know ahead of time that the book would address the Issue of Race, because it did so in a way that wasn't heavy-handed at all. I liked this book, although the ending did not satisfy me; I'm not sure I can imagine an ending to the plot Spencer created that would have satisfied me.

I have no excuse for giving sparse details on Prep (by Curtis Sittenfeld), because I just finished it last night. That being said, um, well, I kind of forget a lot but I know I liked it. Some people didn't like it because they didn't like the main character, but I've never found that to be a problem. Yes, I wanted to shake Lee and tell her what to do; but, hey, she was a high school girl and I most definitely would like to shake my own high-school self and tell her what to do now and again too. That's what high school is all about, not having any clue how to act. You're legally bound to use the word angst when reviewing this book, so here goes: ANGST. It's about a midwestern girl who goes to a posh New England prep school, and everything you imagine might happen does. I liked the writing and the story; I was a little disappointed in the final wrap-up, but it didn't detract from the book. This is a book that will linger with me in a vague but positive way; I keep wondering what Lee is up to. That's a good sign, I think.

Comments

[Lisa]

I also didn't like the main character so much but it did hold my interest. But more importantly, I thought the book was too long...could have been condensed some and still made the same point.

[Chris]

Some books for me are "in one eye and out the other"...or something. You know what I'm going for. They're entertaining but don't lend themselves to being retained.

[Kathleen]

semicolons aren't speakerly. sometimes i automatically use a semicolon, correctly, of course, and then change it to a period. should we take it out back?