Upside Ann

A book of short stories.  Plenty of women.  Plenty of men having sex with women...sometimes with multiple women - though not at the same time.  I did not understand these stories.  I'd follow the plots - and was interested in a few of those - to reach the end to find a paragraph or two of philosophy that left me completely lost.  I'd like to think that if I learned Japanese and read the book in its native tongue, I'd "get it".  I know better.  My only hope was to read it as part of a literature class and be able to listen to a guided discussion of what I just read.  Obviously, I wouldn't be participating.  Please, if you read it- pick one story and help me through.  I will read it again.  I mean, look, I re-read a 350-page novel to learn who "Charlie" is.  In the meantime,.... "Yesterday is two days before tomorrow."   That is as deep as I go today.

 As you might expect in a book that presents a love story between gods of the Underworld (Hades and Thanatos) with goddesses of nature (Persephone and Asphodel), the interesting quotations center on love and death.  I have long known I am not a romantic person.  (I had romance in my youth.  It was glorious.  Today, I'm tired.)  And as far as romantic stories go, I am no judge.  I found this one weak.  I much preferred the romantic fantasies of Sarah Maas.  Maybe because her female characters are so bad-ass and Asphodel - eh - whiny?  Thanatos, as a character, felt limp.... though he had one great exchange.  "I am not a plaything.  I am a force of nature.  And I don't like ostentation.  I find it looks redundant on me." "Redundant," Del sneered.  "What does that even mean?" A cloud passed over the sun, swathing the cottage in shadow, and he locked his eyes on hers.  "Death need not prove it should be ...

 

Our last stop on our first day of driving from Chicago.  We arrived in the waning hours of the day, long after the closure of the visitor's center, and the departure last previous visitor.  It was a magical time to be there - alone on the quiet prairie - like stepping back in time.  I would definitely go back - both during the day to take advantage of the visitor's center and learn more about pipe making - and at twilight to, once again, visit those ghosts. Exhibit quarry near the visitor's center.  The quartzite is beautiful.

 For the next time I read the book - or the next person who finishes with that question. Charlie is the name (yes, given by the US troops to the Viet Cong, but also) that Dave is told as the name of the button man that has been hired by the mob to "clean up" - the assassin to kill him.  Later, during an altercation with a man with bad intentions, Dave asks "Are you Charlie?" If you've come here after reading the book, you know who "Charlie" is.  See "Beast of Buchenwald".

Several months ago, I bought my auntie Burke's novel " In the Electric Mist with the Confederate Dead ".  I knew she'd like it.  She loved it.  And in that moment, I decided to get her ALL of Burke's Robicheaux novels.  Why not? He's genius.  And if she was going to read the series, well then, I needed to re-read it- in part for the 3rd time.  This decision was bolstered when Marianna told me that the woman to whom she gifted Neon Rain because she had expressed an interest in / affection for Burke, didn't remember the next day that she had been given the book.  I'm seeing that waiting to start a book club until I am in an Assisted Living facility might be a bad idea.  So - I'm re-reading but am woefully far behind her.  This is, in part, by necessity as we are sharing books and sometimes, she isn't returning them one at a time.  All of this is just background. I finished Burning Angel 4? 6? weeks ago.  Closed the book and asked m...