"All I can say is what you already know: some days are treasure. Not many, but I think in almost every life there are a few. That was one of mine, and when I'm blue when life comes down on me and everything looks tawdry and cheap, the way Joyland Avenue did on a rainy day I go back to it, if only to remind myself that life isn't always a butcher's game. Sometimes the prizes are real. Sometimes they're precious."
Stephen King, "Joyland"
When people think about Stephen King, the words that often come to mind are: gory, supernatural, weird and creepy but if you have read as many of his books as I have, you know that there is so much more to him as a writer. He is actually a beautiful words craftsman and master storyteller. The above quote from his latest should give you a glimpse of that. I fell in love with him when I was just a teenager and ate up every one of his early novels even though they caused me to lay awake at night scared out of my wits (especially "IT" you know the one about the evil clown which sounds redundant because all clowns are evil...) but loved how imaginative his worlds were and so intricate and real. What is so brilliant about him is his ability to create believable, relatable characters living amidst strange,surreal circumstances. He understands human nature so well and his stories are layered with depth and reality. In one of my college literature classes we actually studied his novel, "Pet Cemetery" as an example of a finely wrought horror story that hit all the right human emotions of loss and love. I just read his latest, "Joyland" and I loved it. It was different for him in the sense that it was melancholy and very sweet. I closed the book smiling. Usually when I close one of his books, I am chilled but this one left me with a warm sense of hope and faith that amidst tough circumstance, beauty is found. The story is about a young college student who decides to work at an old school amusement park named Joyland one summer after a girl breaks his heart. It is set in the 1970s which lent the book an air of nostalgia that I loved. Of course there are some supernatural elements ( he is still Stephen King after all!) but they are overshadowed by human relationships that drive the story. The people he meets that summer change him and the course of his life in a beautiful way. It spoke very poignantly about first love and the things that help us heal from it. It brought me to think of the first time I had my heart broken by first love. I was a college senior and the guy was impossibly handsome, romantic and sweet. He bought me roses and took me to fancy restaurants. On our first date we actually danced in the rain while he sang to me. Gagging yet? Sounds so cliche now but it made me a little loopy and a lot stupid. At 21, I thought that love was supposed to be impossibly romantic and dramatic and that relationship was certainly both. He ended up breaking up with me because I never made time for him (I was working 2 jobs and going to college, give me a break!) but really it was because I was too scared to make a true commitment. (that wouldn't come for 11 more years! ) It was destined for a crash and burn but man did it hurt when he broke my heart! I remember flying to California a little while after to visit my sister Maggie and just crying my eyes out. She did her best to ease my pain and it helped but there is nothing like the agony of that first heart break. It feels physical like someone is sitting on your chest not allowing you to breathe. I tried getting over him by making a series of bad choices but as you know nothing really works except for the passage of time to heal the heart. One of my best friends from high school married her first boyfriend so she never experienced the pain of heartbreak. As much as it sucks, I can't imagine having not felt that. It gave me a perspective and an appreciation for what I have now with my husband that I never would have had otherwise. I guess some people aren't meant to go through certain things. This friend is currently suffering through cancer so I think she has had enough pain for a lifetime but the point is that there is so many ways we can experience pain through life experiences and all of them change us whether for better or worse only we can decide.
I also just finished the latest John Irving novel, another one of my all time favorites. I will admit that in recent years he has been less than impressive but I still will be a loyal fan because he has turned out such brilliant work in his career. This one was called, "In One Person" and it hit all the classic Irving idiosyncrasies: literary references galore, gender confusion, wrestling,an absent father and weird sexual scenes. At its core the novel is about tolerance and acceptance and longing. The main character is a bisexual boy living with a single mother in a small Vermont town. He falls for his local librarian who turns out to be a transsexual. Throughout the novel, we meet many characters who are not what they seem to be. His grandfather is a cross dresser, the macho wrestling champ of his high school is sexually confused and his best friend has a dalliance with an older woman that changes her life. At first I was getting annoyed that every character seemed to have some weird sexual preference. I mean the story is set in 1960s Vermont, there is no way that people were this tolerant right? People aren't this tolerant now. But then by the end of the book, I understood the message he was sending: we shouldn't judge people for who they are no matter how strange or uncomfortable it makes us. He also made us care for these characters and relate to them even though they may have made choices we don't agree with or couldn't understand. There is a beautiful passage towards the end of the book that very succinctly sums this up in a way that I could never do justice here. One of the things I loved about this book was of course its message because I truly believe in tolerance and letting people be who they want to be but I also loved how much he incorporated literary references. The main characters stepfather runs the local theater and is obsessed with Shakespeare and as everyone knows (or should) in Shakespeare's time all the female roles were performed by men and this happens in this novel as well. Irving plays around so much with gender roles and identity and by using Shakespeare he seems to be suggesting to us that this has always been around us and will always be an issue that touches buttons. There is also an underlying feeling of longing in this novel that gave it a sadness that touched me. Billy, the main character has never forgotten his librarian and judges all others against her. It made me think that everyone has events or people or moments that changed them or touched them so much that they will never forget. The memories will forever be trapped in our minds and we will go back again and again to visit them. This was undoubtedly one of my favorite of his novels and it makes me so happy to know that he is not done!
It is a good week when two of your favorite authors deliver...life doesn't get much better does it?
Stephen King, "Joyland"
When people think about Stephen King, the words that often come to mind are: gory, supernatural, weird and creepy but if you have read as many of his books as I have, you know that there is so much more to him as a writer. He is actually a beautiful words craftsman and master storyteller. The above quote from his latest should give you a glimpse of that. I fell in love with him when I was just a teenager and ate up every one of his early novels even though they caused me to lay awake at night scared out of my wits (especially "IT" you know the one about the evil clown which sounds redundant because all clowns are evil...) but loved how imaginative his worlds were and so intricate and real. What is so brilliant about him is his ability to create believable, relatable characters living amidst strange,surreal circumstances. He understands human nature so well and his stories are layered with depth and reality. In one of my college literature classes we actually studied his novel, "Pet Cemetery" as an example of a finely wrought horror story that hit all the right human emotions of loss and love. I just read his latest, "Joyland" and I loved it. It was different for him in the sense that it was melancholy and very sweet. I closed the book smiling. Usually when I close one of his books, I am chilled but this one left me with a warm sense of hope and faith that amidst tough circumstance, beauty is found. The story is about a young college student who decides to work at an old school amusement park named Joyland one summer after a girl breaks his heart. It is set in the 1970s which lent the book an air of nostalgia that I loved. Of course there are some supernatural elements ( he is still Stephen King after all!) but they are overshadowed by human relationships that drive the story. The people he meets that summer change him and the course of his life in a beautiful way. It spoke very poignantly about first love and the things that help us heal from it. It brought me to think of the first time I had my heart broken by first love. I was a college senior and the guy was impossibly handsome, romantic and sweet. He bought me roses and took me to fancy restaurants. On our first date we actually danced in the rain while he sang to me. Gagging yet? Sounds so cliche now but it made me a little loopy and a lot stupid. At 21, I thought that love was supposed to be impossibly romantic and dramatic and that relationship was certainly both. He ended up breaking up with me because I never made time for him (I was working 2 jobs and going to college, give me a break!) but really it was because I was too scared to make a true commitment. (that wouldn't come for 11 more years! ) It was destined for a crash and burn but man did it hurt when he broke my heart! I remember flying to California a little while after to visit my sister Maggie and just crying my eyes out. She did her best to ease my pain and it helped but there is nothing like the agony of that first heart break. It feels physical like someone is sitting on your chest not allowing you to breathe. I tried getting over him by making a series of bad choices but as you know nothing really works except for the passage of time to heal the heart. One of my best friends from high school married her first boyfriend so she never experienced the pain of heartbreak. As much as it sucks, I can't imagine having not felt that. It gave me a perspective and an appreciation for what I have now with my husband that I never would have had otherwise. I guess some people aren't meant to go through certain things. This friend is currently suffering through cancer so I think she has had enough pain for a lifetime but the point is that there is so many ways we can experience pain through life experiences and all of them change us whether for better or worse only we can decide.
I also just finished the latest John Irving novel, another one of my all time favorites. I will admit that in recent years he has been less than impressive but I still will be a loyal fan because he has turned out such brilliant work in his career. This one was called, "In One Person" and it hit all the classic Irving idiosyncrasies: literary references galore, gender confusion, wrestling,an absent father and weird sexual scenes. At its core the novel is about tolerance and acceptance and longing. The main character is a bisexual boy living with a single mother in a small Vermont town. He falls for his local librarian who turns out to be a transsexual. Throughout the novel, we meet many characters who are not what they seem to be. His grandfather is a cross dresser, the macho wrestling champ of his high school is sexually confused and his best friend has a dalliance with an older woman that changes her life. At first I was getting annoyed that every character seemed to have some weird sexual preference. I mean the story is set in 1960s Vermont, there is no way that people were this tolerant right? People aren't this tolerant now. But then by the end of the book, I understood the message he was sending: we shouldn't judge people for who they are no matter how strange or uncomfortable it makes us. He also made us care for these characters and relate to them even though they may have made choices we don't agree with or couldn't understand. There is a beautiful passage towards the end of the book that very succinctly sums this up in a way that I could never do justice here. One of the things I loved about this book was of course its message because I truly believe in tolerance and letting people be who they want to be but I also loved how much he incorporated literary references. The main characters stepfather runs the local theater and is obsessed with Shakespeare and as everyone knows (or should) in Shakespeare's time all the female roles were performed by men and this happens in this novel as well. Irving plays around so much with gender roles and identity and by using Shakespeare he seems to be suggesting to us that this has always been around us and will always be an issue that touches buttons. There is also an underlying feeling of longing in this novel that gave it a sadness that touched me. Billy, the main character has never forgotten his librarian and judges all others against her. It made me think that everyone has events or people or moments that changed them or touched them so much that they will never forget. The memories will forever be trapped in our minds and we will go back again and again to visit them. This was undoubtedly one of my favorite of his novels and it makes me so happy to know that he is not done!
It is a good week when two of your favorite authors deliver...life doesn't get much better does it?
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