In One Person

John Irving is, without a doubt, my favorite author.  I will read anything he writes.  His last few books have not been his best.  They have long, arcing stories that tie in brilliantly, but the last few have cut some corners and seem to be draft-like and not the perfect connections that some of his books have.  There are very familiar themes - sexuality, childhood nemeses affecting our lives, single mothers, absent fathers, etc.  He tries to put these themes in a modern context and does very well with that actually.  You can't write a novel with gay men in the 80s without dealing with AIDS, and he deals with it very well.  One of my favorite scenes was two childhood friends who reunite on one friend's deathbed.

It's always curious to me that not just one but ALL of the characters fixate on people from their childhood.  Frequently the children of the characters even fixate on an individual.  I am one of those people who remembers people, events and even dialogue for years and years.  It is reassuring to me to think that there is an arc to life that results in satisfaction of childhood issues in adulthood.  Unfortunately I think that reality is that I lack an editor.

I can tell it is the end of summer - my stepdaughters have gone back to Gordon, NE and my kids are back in school.  I have quiet time in the evenings to read again.

I had ambitious plans to read this year and I have not come close to meeting those goals, but I have done better than I did last year, and I will take that.