I wouldn't have met Piti if it hadn't been for a chichigua. To translate chichigua as a kite does not do justice to these beautiful creations of...
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Anne Enright, Irish author of The Forgotten Waltz, writes about a love affair. It's a book with thick pages, literally heavy, weighted paper. The print is big, almost like you could walk between the spaces of the words or in a tight squeeze you could slip between the letters of the words. Roughly 260 pages. It seems like I should have finished the book in a few hours but it's taking longer. The sentences and style are very simple, almost like a childhood primer. Anne is expressive, articulate, and yet the story dawdles. Is this intentional? Is this love affair written in such a way that one can't hurry through it without feeling its sleight of hand beginnings, its evolution, and its consequences? I have considered abandoning it at times, as if the story was moving too slowly, and I couldn't get through the doorway into the next room of the next paragraph on the next page into the next chapter. Now, with less than a third of the book to go, I am invested in finishing it, in finding out what happens, in figuring out how she writes with a thickness, thicker than weighted paper, that keeps me slogging through each doorway into the next room and into the next scene to feel my life, as I feel the lives of the characters.
If you are not familiar with the poetry of Albert Goldbarth, you are in for a treat. In Everyday People, his newest volume of poetry, each poem is a swirling concoction of tangling the past, present, and future into a tasty brew. The poems here are shorter than in other volumes, the longest only being a few pages, whereas in previous volumes a poem may seem like a never-ending carnival ride. Either way, his poetry is accessible with a bit of humor, history, philosophy, and humanity in every poem. The mundane married to the sublime ending in a smile. It is a book not to be missed.
You've read memoirs but never a book this intimate. Death denial is so widespread that you'd never imagine that a woman who has written nearly a hundred books (including many plays and novels), who is happily married to a man she has spent nearly every day of the last forty-seven years, could live in a world where she thought this would never happen to her. This book is intimate in ways that it's hard to talk about. So well written, so honest, not only do you feel like you're right there with her, you feel as if you are her. No separation. I lingered with every word, every emotion I felt. Her life will never be the same and neither will mine for having read her book.
In contrast to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Joyce Carol Oates' memoir about the death of her husband explores every avenue of grief. Her style is so intimate that you feel right there in the room with her, right in her heart and mind as she explores loss. How well did she really know her husband? Do the cats really hold her accountable for his death? She explores every aspect of both knowing her husband and knowing herself as a widow. It is a courageous book that will touch your heart.
If you love no one, not even yourself, read this book and you will love yourself and it will put a smile on your face. This book, subtitled "Ingredients for a Sweet Life", will widen the circle of your heart. Geri Larkin's honest and quirky self will bring Zen spirituality home with a mixture of wisdom and hilarity. I have lent my copy to friends who have read it not once but twice in succession. No higher compliment is necessary.
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M Kassapa has commented on (7) products.
The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright
M Kassapa, March 14, 2012
Anne Enright, Irish author of The Forgotten Waltz, writes about a love affair. It's a book with thick pages, literally heavy, weighted paper. The print is big, almost like you could walk between the spaces of the words or in a tight squeeze you could slip between the letters of the words. Roughly 260 pages. It seems like I should have finished the book in a few hours but it's taking longer. The sentences and style are very simple, almost like a childhood primer. Anne is expressive, articulate, and yet the story dawdles. Is this intentional? Is this love affair written in such a way that one can't hurry through it without feeling its sleight of hand beginnings, its evolution, and its consequences? I have considered abandoning it at times, as if the story was moving too slowly, and I couldn't get through the doorway into the next room of the next paragraph on the next page into the next chapter. Now, with less than a third of the book to go, I am invested in finishing it, in finding out what happens, in figuring out how she writes with a thickness, thicker than weighted paper, that keeps me slogging through each doorway into the next room and into the next scene to feel my life, as I feel the lives of the characters.Everyday People by Albert Goldbarth
M Kassapa, February 2, 2012
If you are not familiar with the poetry of Albert Goldbarth, you are in for a treat. In Everyday People, his newest volume of poetry, each poem is a swirling concoction of tangling the past, present, and future into a tasty brew. The poems here are shorter than in other volumes, the longest only being a few pages, whereas in previous volumes a poem may seem like a never-ending carnival ride. Either way, his poetry is accessible with a bit of humor, history, philosophy, and humanity in every poem. The mundane married to the sublime ending in a smile. It is a book not to be missed.A Widow's Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates
M Kassapa, January 20, 2012
You've read memoirs but never a book this intimate. Death denial is so widespread that you'd never imagine that a woman who has written nearly a hundred books (including many plays and novels), who is happily married to a man she has spent nearly every day of the last forty-seven years, could live in a world where she thought this would never happen to her. This book is intimate in ways that it's hard to talk about. So well written, so honest, not only do you feel like you're right there with her, you feel as if you are her. No separation. I lingered with every word, every emotion I felt. Her life will never be the same and neither will mine for having read her book.A Widow's Story: A Memoir by Joyce Carol Oates
M Kassapa, December 1, 2011
In contrast to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Joyce Carol Oates' memoir about the death of her husband explores every avenue of grief. Her style is so intimate that you feel right there in the room with her, right in her heart and mind as she explores loss. How well did she really know her husband? Do the cats really hold her accountable for his death? She explores every aspect of both knowing her husband and knowing herself as a widow. It is a courageous book that will touch your heart.The Chocolate Cake Sutra: Ingredients for a Sweet Life by Geri Larkin
M Kassapa, March 30, 2011
If you love no one, not even yourself, read this book and you will love yourself and it will put a smile on your face. This book, subtitled "Ingredients for a Sweet Life", will widen the circle of your heart. Geri Larkin's honest and quirky self will bring Zen spirituality home with a mixture of wisdom and hilarity. I have lent my copy to friends who have read it not once but twice in succession. No higher compliment is necessary.1-5 of 7next