So, yesterday was the official kick-off of the Keep Portland Weird festival here in Paris, which meant that I had a reading/screening in the...
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There is something about picking up a book I don't know anything about and finding it resonates with me. This is a book like that. It's set in La Paz, Bolivia, a city I once spent a week visiting. Mountford describes this city exactly as I experienced it as an American traveler. The main character lives in a hotel room near where my friends live there, and he walks streets I walked and visits cafes I visited there. And he experiences them so similarly to the way I felt about them that it's a little eery. In a comforting way.
I've been asked "what's it about?" when I've recommended the book to friends, and really, this book is about everything. It's about love, and finding your own way in the world, and figuring out what love means and how to find it and how to deal with keeping it or with losing it. It's about how to value yourself, and others, and how bad some of us can be at treating people well.
It's written exactly right--the characters are crafted without being overly fictional; the relationships are complicated to the point that as a reader, I got to find my own theories on motivations of the characters, rather than having everything spelled out.
This book walks the line between cultures without generalizing about any culture at all--each person in the story is human, and fascinating.
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Julia Lynton has commented on (2) products.
A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism by Peter Mountford
Julia Lynton, January 2, 2012
A year after reading it, and I still recommend it to everyone I know.A Young Man's Guide to Late Capitalism by Peter Mountford
Julia Lynton, January 10, 2011
There is something about picking up a book I don't know anything about and finding it resonates with me. This is a book like that. It's set in La Paz, Bolivia, a city I once spent a week visiting. Mountford describes this city exactly as I experienced it as an American traveler. The main character lives in a hotel room near where my friends live there, and he walks streets I walked and visits cafes I visited there. And he experiences them so similarly to the way I felt about them that it's a little eery. In a comforting way.I've been asked "what's it about?" when I've recommended the book to friends, and really, this book is about everything. It's about love, and finding your own way in the world, and figuring out what love means and how to find it and how to deal with keeping it or with losing it. It's about how to value yourself, and others, and how bad some of us can be at treating people well.
It's written exactly right--the characters are crafted without being overly fictional; the relationships are complicated to the point that as a reader, I got to find my own theories on motivations of the characters, rather than having everything spelled out.
This book walks the line between cultures without generalizing about any culture at all--each person in the story is human, and fascinating.
I loved this book. You should read it.