![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
My grandfather was a huge McCarthy fan; I have him to thank for telling me to read All the Pretty Horses when I was 14 or so, which was my introduction to the idea of gruesomely cauterizing an open wound with a random hot metal object. A skill that has never served me well *and* kept me up at night horrified at least once. Thanks, grandpa! ;)
Unlike "Everything..." by Simon Price that I wrote about last, there isn't any particularly personal backstory to my decision to read The Road. Grandpa introduced me to McCarthy and -- sometime around 2008 -- on the strength of my love for (most) of his other books, I read The Road.
The Road is gorgeous. In fact, it's one of those books that's so gorgeous, it even renders the words of its reviewers beautiful. There are so many eloquent, considerate analyses and reviews of this book and I don't know that I have much to add to them. I will say that I think I *understand* The Road... maybe not more, but differently now that I am a parent. It's less of a work of fiction to me now and more like a mandate, particularly given the instability, violence, and callousness in which we often live. The question is never whether you ought to protect your children from embracing this cruelty, it's what is the cost to yourself to do that and how. And how do you know when you've crossed the line from protector to zealot.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
I've decided I'm going to wedge my current reading reviews into these posts -- mostly because otherwise it'll be approx. 384234 weeks before I get around to mentioning them, which is almost as bad as what I'm already doing here. Why add to the collection of books I mis-remember publicly if I don't have to?
I gave up, at least for the time being (and AGAIN), on The Magicians. I want to like that book. More than I want to like it, I just want to finish it bc I've sunk some serious time into it -- more than you'd think I could into a 200 page book in a language I speak fluently that's not about physics or dirt samples. But I'm struggling to like it enough to bother to finish it.
Anyway, I let Twitter feed me my next book to read and ended up picking up The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling in the meantime -- and it's twice as long and I finished it in about 25% of the time I've dedicated to The Magicians! The book is an atmospheric, sometimes chilling, sometimes slightly slow, and almost always interesting survival tale with a twisting-turning f/f relationship at it's core -- and it's centers on one of my personal favorite themes: the tricks isolation can play on your psyche. Definitely enjoyed this and would recommend it, even with a couple caveats.
The story is about Gyre, who lies about being a "professional" cave explorer into order to take a high-paying job in a dangerous cave-system she doesn't know much about. Her only contact during her work is Em, her erratic, dangerous employer and sole lifeline. Neither of them really have any busy doing what they're doing.
Their interactions, which illuminate more and more just how similar they are in some ways, are the center of the book. They help greatly to move the story forward and also bring about some of the more chilling moments in the book, as Gyre struggles with the knowledge that she relies on Em, maybe understands Em... and that morally-questionable Em holds Gyre's life entirely in her hands. But it's not just their on-going, fluctuating relationship that make it good -- it's also the really great descriptions of the cave, the sumps, and the feeling of claustrophobia. The setting here is great, definitely played a major role in the successes in the book.
My caveats are -- there are multiple moments when Gyre acts in ways that are SO opposed to her own self-interest/survival that it threw me out of the story. Gyre is impulsive and decisive -- great! I love that. But she crosses the line straight over into "like, seriously, unbelievably reckless omg" a couple times and it's jarring.
The ending, which I'll try not to spoil, seemed to gloss over the worst of Em's crimes. It seemed to me like a broader reckoning was warranted. That sounds fire and brimstone, but... seriously. However, I think it's an ending that invites some interpretation and discussion, which is why I am here at all. :) I approve.
My grandfather was a huge McCarthy fan; I have him to thank for telling me to read All the Pretty Horses when I was 14 or so, which was my introduction to the idea of gruesomely cauterizing an open wound with a random hot metal object. A skill that has never served me well *and* kept me up at night horrified at least once. Thanks, grandpa! ;)
Unlike "Everything..." by Simon Price that I wrote about last, there isn't any particularly personal backstory to my decision to read The Road. Grandpa introduced me to McCarthy and -- sometime around 2008 -- on the strength of my love for (most) of his other books, I read The Road.
The Road is gorgeous. In fact, it's one of those books that's so gorgeous, it even renders the words of its reviewers beautiful. There are so many eloquent, considerate analyses and reviews of this book and I don't know that I have much to add to them. I will say that I think I *understand* The Road... maybe not more, but differently now that I am a parent. It's less of a work of fiction to me now and more like a mandate, particularly given the instability, violence, and callousness in which we often live. The question is never whether you ought to protect your children from embracing this cruelty, it's what is the cost to yourself to do that and how. And how do you know when you've crossed the line from protector to zealot.
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
I've decided I'm going to wedge my current reading reviews into these posts -- mostly because otherwise it'll be approx. 384234 weeks before I get around to mentioning them, which is almost as bad as what I'm already doing here. Why add to the collection of books I mis-remember publicly if I don't have to?
I gave up, at least for the time being (and AGAIN), on The Magicians. I want to like that book. More than I want to like it, I just want to finish it bc I've sunk some serious time into it -- more than you'd think I could into a 200 page book in a language I speak fluently that's not about physics or dirt samples. But I'm struggling to like it enough to bother to finish it.
Anyway, I let Twitter feed me my next book to read and ended up picking up The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling in the meantime -- and it's twice as long and I finished it in about 25% of the time I've dedicated to The Magicians! The book is an atmospheric, sometimes chilling, sometimes slightly slow, and almost always interesting survival tale with a twisting-turning f/f relationship at it's core -- and it's centers on one of my personal favorite themes: the tricks isolation can play on your psyche. Definitely enjoyed this and would recommend it, even with a couple caveats.
The story is about Gyre, who lies about being a "professional" cave explorer into order to take a high-paying job in a dangerous cave-system she doesn't know much about. Her only contact during her work is Em, her erratic, dangerous employer and sole lifeline. Neither of them really have any busy doing what they're doing.
Their interactions, which illuminate more and more just how similar they are in some ways, are the center of the book. They help greatly to move the story forward and also bring about some of the more chilling moments in the book, as Gyre struggles with the knowledge that she relies on Em, maybe understands Em... and that morally-questionable Em holds Gyre's life entirely in her hands. But it's not just their on-going, fluctuating relationship that make it good -- it's also the really great descriptions of the cave, the sumps, and the feeling of claustrophobia. The setting here is great, definitely played a major role in the successes in the book.
My caveats are -- there are multiple moments when Gyre acts in ways that are SO opposed to her own self-interest/survival that it threw me out of the story. Gyre is impulsive and decisive -- great! I love that. But she crosses the line straight over into "like, seriously, unbelievably reckless omg" a couple times and it's jarring.
The ending, which I'll try not to spoil, seemed to gloss over the worst of Em's crimes. It seemed to me like a broader reckoning was warranted. That sounds fire and brimstone, but... seriously. However, I think it's an ending that invites some interpretation and discussion, which is why I am here at all. :) I approve.
