Empire Falls

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_Falls

http://www.litlovers.com/guide_empirefalls.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Russo

There are so many good things about living in a small town, but in spite of all the benefits, it certainly isn't all good. Having lived in a small town almost all my life, I have come to respect the genuine love and caring that people in such a place can have for one another, but I have also witnessed the emotional distruction of people by neighbors who knew, or thought they knew, everything. I have watched the village raise a child and I have seen other children who struggled with the double assignment of dealing with wretchedness and keeping that wretchedness a secret from the rest of the town. It has always amazed me that small town people can be so interested in some of its characters and deaf and blind to others.

Additionally, the distinction between the haves and havenots is so very blatant. Silk Stocking Avenue runs parallel with Wrong Side of the Tracks Side Street. With no private schools to hide in, Sally Silver Spoon sits right next to Freddy Free and Reduced Price Lunch. Such was the town of Empire Falls.

Now, add the very true and real relationships that people will find no matter where they live and the storytelling ability of Richard Russo and you have a page-turning story.

It was not the most enjoyable book I have read lately, but it did bring back memories - many of which I would just as soon forget and it proved to be a mirror for me to judge my own small town characteristics.

Read it only if you think you can look in that mirror and like what you see.

Like Water for Chocolate

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Like_Water_for_Chocolate

http://www.enotes.com/like-water

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/likewater/study.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_EsquivelII

I have several connections to this book. First, a lovely group of women in Edinburg, Texas suggested that I might enjoy it. (I enjoy almost everything they suggest.) Second, I grew up just a few miles from the setting of this story and I actually lived in the town of Eagle Pass Texas for a year and a half as a young woman. Both of my daughters were born in Piedras Negras. Third, I love cooking and grocery shopping and recipes. Fourth, I love Mexican food especially when it is prepared by someone who really knows what they are doing. Fifth, when I read the book, I had just left Oaxaca where my husband and I had spent Christmas with friends. One of the special treats of the trip was a nightly cup of hot chocolate made with water and sweetened with cajete. Sixth, I read the book aloud on the beach at Zipolite. I had an audience of one - my husband. Even with all the lovely distractions of the playa, he actually paid attention to the reading. Seventh, I am a woman who has experienced just about everything in the book with the possible exception of setting fires with my passion.

I loved the book - enough that I purchased a copy in Spanish which I read and enjoyed just as much as the English version. It was interesting to see just how closely it had been translated.

I recommend Like Water for Chocolate to all women and to all the men who love them and want just a bit more insight into the crazy life of the feminine mind.

The Confederacy of Dunces

A Confederacy of Dunces



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confederacy_of_Dunces

http://www.curledup.com/dunces.htm

http://www.gradesaver.com/a-confederacy-of-dunces/



by John Kennedy Toole

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy_Toole



What an interesting book. A friend who borrowed the book after I finished it helped me find the words that best described my own feelings - Original, wild, hilarious in parts, brilliant in parts, but… I don’t know… I’ll have to think on it. I certainly enjoyed it though, especially the dialogue and dialects.



Reading it right on the heels of a visit to New Orleans with Ken and Ivy, good friends and former residents of the Big Easy, I enjoyed seeing familiar place names, references to places I had visited, and bits of dialogue that I actually overheard on the streets. The story was intriguing and the characters who peopled the many subplots were so well drawn that I thought I could recognize them should I see them outside the covers of the book. It was laugh out loud funny and thought provoking. As my friend said, ¨I´ll have to think on it.¨



The two things I liked best about the book were 1)Ken gave it to me as a momento of our visit to New Orleans and 2) the origin of the title: a sentence in Jonathan Swift's "Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting":

"When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him."

Now, honey chile, ain´t that jest the way of it?