Glad I didn't see the movie

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

I didn’t like this book. It’s not that it doesn’t flow but it doesn’t flow anywhere quickly. It plays in the space of the psyches of an American couple that moved to the suburbs from the city to raise their growing family. As the book cover explains, “they may have married too young and started a family too soon, but they always figured greatness was around the corner. But now they are beginning to doubt…”.

To me, these people were lost before they even got married. Both were trying to fit into an ideal of what they wanted to be and not recognizing & loving the person they actually are. They played into their roles so much that they continued to play house into marriage and then into a family. They were setting themselves up for misery by never being themselves.

But that also makes you think how realistic this is. Very, I think. Maybe not to the same extreme as Frank and April Wheeler but we all have ideas of how we want ourselves to be perceived and work hard to attain that perception. Whether it is being seen as the leader at work, the loving mother at home, the in-love, perfect couple…we all care about how we are perceived. That is why it is important to have that place of true honesty in our lives. The really free ones have that place with them all the time but for the majority of us, we are not that brave (at least I’m not). For some, that place of honesty is at home where they can lay it all out without pretension or worry about how they look or sound to their family because it is their family and they love and support no matter what as a family should. Or it could be with your buddies or a lover or maybe even a stranger. At the very least, everyone should be able to be honest in the bathroom. It’s important to have and very necessary. I think everyone needs that person in their life that sees them at their basest self, without any witty phrases or charming smiles, see them with their weaknesses, failures, and successes and have that person be able to look back with love and understanding. Simply for the fact that both of you are willing to share the most intimate part of yourself and not blink (at least not too much).

It sounds like I’ve deviated from the book but I haven’t. Frank and April Wheeler never had this place of refuge. Not at what point were they ever at peace with themselves or with each other, never at one point were they truly honest. And therein, misery lies.

A Book and a Poem

A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon

This story is so British. And if you don’t know Brits, then you should read this book to find out. This story follows the life of a man and his family as he politely begins to lose his mind.

I like Mark Haddon books. They are always a little quirky and usually make me laugh. Granted, I’ve only read one other of his books, The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night-Time, but it’s hard to be quirky and weird in a book without being exhausting. And he’s done it consistently twice.

There are no great life lessons to be learned from this book nor the other one…save some one or two phrases. But they are fun to read. And I think that always qualifies for a good book. It doesn’t need to be thought provoking to be good it can just be good for the fun that it brings to your life.

As I mentioned briefly earlier, the plot centers on a dysfunctional family and follows each of their lives individually and collectively as the father begins to lose his mind. This type of story could have been grave and depressing but Haddon has a way of making it all a little fun and absurd through the things that happen to them and how they react. I like the fact that Haddon doesn’t try and make anyone a “hero” so to speak. Yes, each family member has a distinct characteristic but they all have nuances and thoughts as well. They act and think like the confused and slightly crazy/dysfunctional beings that all of us are. And I applaud any author that can make a fictional character become real and a real human in my eyes.

It’s not a must-read but a fun read. So if anyone happens to be at my place of residence or near me when I have it, you are welcome to borrow at any time. Be warned that I will put my name in it because I will want it back. On second thought….nobody returns books, so all requests are denied.

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Bicycles (Love Poems) by Nikki Giovanni

I haven’t read the whole book. I’m not a big poetry person. I don’t usually get it. Or I do get it but it comes too quickly. I like a novel because it paints a picture, gives background and dives deeper than a poem ever could. Not knocking poets but I just love books more.

Anyway, I went to a poetry reading she gave here in MKE. It was really cool. I actually got to meet her because we got there well before it began. I shook her hand and asked her what in the world would bring her to MKE. I found out later when she repeated this question to the audience at the beginning of her reading. Apparently, MKE has a huge book-loving community and it knows how to pamper authors.

The poetry reading was a lot of fun. It was so much better than the amateur nights at Mt. Zion and The Cove Love, where the majority of the artists would find every which way to describe every sexual encounter (read: fantasy) they’ve ever encountered. Nikki was fun and intimate but not so much that she was a hoar about it. She told us stories behind each poem, what inspired her to write them. Some were sad because the book was originally inspired by the passing of her mother and sister. And she found a way to overcome her grief by writing poems of love. But even those stories about her mother and sister’s death were told with laughter. I kind of felt weird laughing with her because I kept wondering if she was thinking, “Why are these motherf***ers laughing at my momma dying?”. It made me think about my own grandma dying and realized at some point you’ve got to move on and find some laughter in the whole sorry story (my grandma kept waking up to ask “Am I dead yet?”)…

Anyway, the poetry reading was great because it gave me the background, the painting, behind the poems. Like I said some were sad but others were funny & quirky (The point is I’m normal, so why am I so enchanted with you?) and others were interesting like Fame, dedicated to her former VA Tech student, Michael Vick. All of them were interesting and told by an interesting, funny, and quirky lady, Nikki Giovanni. I would go again in a heartbeat. And the rest of the poems in her book make me smile, laugh, reminisce, and remember.

The advantage, I realize, that poems have over books is that they allow more room for freedom of thought. Most are spare are meant to be that way so you can fill them with your own conclusions and interpretations. With a book, you can have this same freedom but it is easy for an author to confine it by detailing out the reasons, the logic, and the paths too intricately. Over-detailed books create tedium and not freedom. But without some detail, then you wouldn’t have a book. Good authors find a balance…

I’ve rambled far beyond the point of Nikki Giovanni. It’s a good book and I don’t even like poems that much. I’m probably biased toward this collection of poems because I heard them read but I think it’s worth a look if you get a chance.

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Next book: Revolutionary Road

First thoughts: These people need Jesus :)