friday catch-up

This week I am on my third novel for my Reading the Author Challenge. I have always felt that Alice McDermott experiments with perspective in a unique way and Weddings and Wakes proves that. So far the story is being mediated by three children, collectively – she doesn’t jump from one child to the other. They are simply a mass, three witnesses to the events between their parents and most particularly their unhappy mother. Every once in a while one of them gets their own opinion. It was a little hard to get used to but now that I’m in, I like the idea. I’m hoping to finish this weekend and will put more thoughts up next week.   

I had wanted to post a review on Middlesex today and I got about halfway through it when I realized how boring I was being. I just didn’t love this book so I am having a hard time finding anything interesting to say about it. I’ll work on it some more later and see if I can’t find a way to spark some interest – that way maybe someone else will read it, LOVE it and enumerate its merits for me. 

The Picture of Dorian Gray – now this is actually turning into a fascinating book. If you can get past Wilde’s flowery style. I am a bit tired of all the references to young men with beautiful, flower-petal skin and overflowing emotion. But his exploration of influence is really intriguing. That someone could have such power over another person is really scary. Dorian is a horrid little creature – beautiful but vain and he’s so good at justifying his actions. And Harry is perfectly malicious. Besides all that – there are some fabulous lines: 

Women represent the triumph of matter of mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals. 

Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older they judge them, sometimes they forgive them.  

Hope everyone has a nice reading weekend!