@VeryHappy , I will be interested to hear how well you like / can concentrate on The English Patient.
My little story: I read it twenty-something years ago as a new mother, often picking it up while nursing my son. I sometimes found myself reading the same page over again, losing track of plot points, asking myself “what?” – and eventually decided it wasn’t the right book for me to read with postpartum brain.
Ten or so years later I picked it up again. I sometimes found myself reading the same page over again, losing track of plot points … I did finish it, but with the new thought that “It’s not just me, it’s this book.” I’m usually better at focusing!
I loved Ondaatjie’s The English Patient and also The Cat’s Table (which we read here for book club), but I had @jollymama’s reaction to Anil’s Ghost – just could not stay focused on it, although I did finish it (but can no longer remember a thing – didn’t stick).
I don’t remember who, but someone said that both the book and the movie were first rate. I’ll give it a shot, but lately I’m finding that I start a lot of books that I abandon around page 50. So, we’ll see.
Interesting, I loved The English Patient, and thought the movie kind of missed the point and made it a rather banal love story. I often have little patience for more literary fiction, but not that one!
Congress created the statutory position of the Counselor to the Chief Justice in 1972 to aid in the increasingly complex planning and leadership duties of the Chief Justice. Within the Court, the Counselor serves as the Chief Justice’s chief operating officer. Outside of the Court, the Counselor supports the Chief Justice in his broad-ranging responsibility as head of the federal judiciary, including in his roles as presiding officer of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, and Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. The Counselor is also the Chief Justice’s point of contact and representative for many varied entities having business with the Court, including judicial organizations, bar associations, foreign courts, and visiting dignitaries.
Interns in the Counselor’s Office conduct background research for briefings provided to guests of the Supreme Court; draft correspondence; collect, track, and summarize relevant news articles; and assist in other projects as assigned. The Counselor’s Office accepts only students available to intern on a full-time basis, five days per week.**
Two undergraduates are chosen per semester. Parental brag: my daughter did this spring semester of her sophomore year of college. I bet she’d love this book.
Here the six - oops, seven - book titles, as requested (I had already read one of the books so I guess that’s why the number six stuck with me):
Remember Ben Clayton by Stephen Harrigan
When the Men Were Gone by Marjorie Herrera Lewis
Stormy Weather by Paulette Jiles
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Call Your Daughter Home by Deb Spera
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
I know the choices are good ones but all are historical fiction with a twist: historical fiction/western or sports or southern or intermixed with contemporary. Anyway, the last few books chosen in that book club were historical fiction and, of course, I was reading This Tender Land also - plus the two books before that for CC Book Club were historical fiction (not a complaint but glad to have a change in direction this time.)
I’ve always found these little interviews fascinating. There’s a couple of writers I’ve put off reading because their answers were so off-putting. This one is an interesting mix of things I disagree with him about. (I loved Moby Dick, probably because I had a high school teacher I loved teach it.) I’m not much of a mystery reader and having only read his two non-crime books I don’t think of him as a crime novelist. I would have loved to hear what he thought of my favorite mid-west writer Jon Hassler.
Alas, I think the world has just as many mean people today as it did in the 1930’s, but it’s harder to “institutionalize” the cruelty (e.g., Lincoln School) or allow it to go unpunished (e.g., Jack, the pig scarer) because of laws protecting children, along with a 21st century “wokeness” that was sorely lacking back in Odie’s era.
That said, I do think the villains in This Tender Land have an over-the-top quality about them, which may have been deliberate, in that the story is really a tall tale with a mythic feel, as told by an old man who identifies himself on page one as, first and foremost, a storyteller.
yes. that makes sense. he’s a storyteller. I guess i didnt keep that in mind as i read the book! it is a bit of a tall tale. but worthy and with emotion.
I thought of the book again this week. It’s nice to have a story that “stays with you”.
There is a lot of discussions about homelessness on local FB page. There are the usual worries about their safety as we go into winter plus concerns over the growing number … and challenges due to growing number, even tents along main streets. That made me reflect again on the “Hopersville” shanty town.