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I'm more than halfway through Alas, Babylon. I had never heard of that book before reading about it on here. My first thought was that it wasn't nearly as dated as I thought it might be, and of course, I am of a generation that still has the frame of reference towards the Cold War.
My second thought was that One Second After was cribbed from this book, except for the fact that the author of One Second After wrote with an agenda, and I wished all his characterless characters a quick death.
Has anyone here read The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus? I"ll probably start that book next.
Yes, I've read the Garden of Last Days, and I loved it. I love everything by AD III and his dad, Andre Dubus, master of short stories. Garden isn't as good as House of Sand and Fog, but, nothing is, IMO. I don't care for short stories, but I'll read ADs.
Yes, I've read the Garden of Last Days, and I loved it. I love everything by AD III and his dad, Andre Dubus, master of short stories. Garden isn't as good as House of Sand and Fog, but, nothing is, IMO. I don't care for short stories, but I'll read ADs.
House of Sand and Fog just about wrecked me. I think I am afraid of this author. On the other hand, I just ordered Garden of Last Days. I think I must be a glutton for punishment if the punishment is reading a book that really touches me emotionally.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I loved, Loved, LOVED House of Sand and Fog.
But Garden of Last Days? I didn't even finish it.
PS. Just a few more pages left of One Thousand White Women. I'll finish it tonight. And then... yes!!!... I'll start another book. I'm back, baby, I'm back! Finally! Things are back to normal.
House of Sand and Fog just about wrecked me. I think I am afraid of this author. On the other hand, I just ordered Garden of Last Days. I think I must be a glutton for punishment if the punishment is reading a book that really touches me emotionally.
I know what you mean. I was fascinated that someone came up with a storyline like House of Sand and Fog. It was so unique. He has such a creative mind. I hope you like Garden. I need to read his memoir, Townie. I think thats pretty tragic also.
Anyway, how could you not like this?
Dubus's ambitious if uneven follow-up to House of Sand and Fog begins shortly before 9/11 with stripper April taking her three-year-old daughter, Franny, to work after the babysitter flakes at the last minute. Though she leaves Franny with the club's house mother and intends to keep tabs on her, April's distracted on the floor by Bassam, a Muslim who's in Florida to take flying lessons and (like one of the real 9/11 hijackers) spends early September 2001 throwing around money and living lasciviously. Meanwhile, AJ, a down-on-his-luck local, lingers in the parking lot after getting thrown out for touching a dancer. The slow-starting plot splinters once Franny wanders outside and disappears. Soon, AJ's wanted for kidnapping, April's run through the social service wringers as an unfit parent, and the murky particulars of Bassam's mission come into sharp focus as he struggles with his religious convictions. Dubus gives the breath of life to most of his characters (Bassam—not so much), though the narrative has a mechanical feeling, partially owing to the narrow emotional register Dubus works in: doom and desperation are in plentiful supply from page one, and as the novel fades to black, the reader's left with a roster of sadder-but-wiser Americans to contemplate.
Making an occasional foray into non-fiction, with Kathryn Schulz' "Being Wrong", a study of how people perceive truth and knowledge and the dubious certainty with which they assert them.
Just finished "The Painted Man" which was way better than I expected. Just ordered the next volume of it ("Desert Spear").
Now I'm already 50 pages deep into "The Doctor's Wife". Quite gripping.
I'm expecting 4 Sookie Stackhouse novels so I'm going to re-read the volumes I already have at home again before starting on the new books. I just need a little bit of fiction right now
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
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I finished One Thousand White Women yesterday. That book is such a treasure. I never would have thought, from the synopsis, that I'd like the book, so thank you to all of you who raved about it.
I'm going to start -- if I can stop unpacking before I collapse into sleep, and allow myself a bit of reading time -- The Book of Salt by Monique Truong.
Yep I must say I did love half broke horses and also a thousand white women . When you find books like that reading is such a treasure .
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I think I must be a glutton for punishment if the punishment is reading a book that really touches me emotionally. 
Finally! Things are back to normal.
