#184 The Hat- T.C. Boyle

#184 The Hat- T.C. Boyle

Like within a family, personalities are magnified in small communities. You can’t hide, and everyone becomes something of a caricature or a stereotype. This tiny deep mountain community in the Sierras has 27 year-round residents. Jill and Michael are two. Of the 25 others, only 3 were woman, 2 of those were married and old, and the other a drunken walleyed man-hating poetess. So you can imagine, during the long winter months, things could get a bit ornery.

“I’d read somewhere that nine out of ten adults in Alaska had a drinking problem. I could believe it. Snow, ice, sleet, wind, the dark night of the soul: what else were you supposed to do?”

And drink they did, all day and night. Visitors and seasonal residents made things interesting, and so do bears that stalk the food stores of the only bar in town.

Notable Passage: “Her tone was so soft, so contrite, so sweet and friendly and conciliatory, that I could actually feel the great big heavy plates of the world shifting back into alignment beneath my feet.”

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#183 The Chimpanzees of Wyoming Territory- Don Zancanella

#183 The Chimpanzees of Wyoming Territory- Don Zancanella

This is a road/trail journal from the frontier during the post civil war 1860’s. Two veterans travel to meet a partner and mine their gold claim. They are entertainers who have acquired two performing Chimpanzees.

“I pity mankind. We have contracted a disease of the spirit. IT robs us of our compassion. It is contagious madness. It is worse than typhoid. It compels us to murder the innocent. We bleed the grace from the everlasting souls.”

Notable Passage: “Miners are like poker players. They continue because all their hardships can be redeemed by a single run of luck.”

Rating: 7-7-7-6 Total= 27

#182 Old Friends- Shusaku Endo

#182 Old Friends- Shusaku Endo

Old friends meet together, some perhaps for the last time. They remember their youths and remember the war. Mostly they remember Father Bosch. He is a 70 year-old priest who was tortured during the war, called a spy and removed from his parish and the lives of these friends.

“In those days every foreigner was suspect.. The police and the military authority kept an even closer watch on Catholic priests.”

Father Bosch survived these tortures but something always dies in souls that endure such horrors. Never the less, he remains in this place that caused him these nightmares.

“He never thought of abandoning the people who had inflicted such cruel tortures upon him. Undoubtedly one day his bones would be laid to rest in this land."

Rating: 7-6-7-6 Total= 26

#181 The Most Girl Part of You- Amy Hempel

#181 The Most Girl Part of You- Amy Hempel

Two adolescent best friends, one girl who lost her father years ago, and one boy who lost his mother 8 days ago. Big Guy is more than just a friend, he has been embraced by her mother as “The Man of the House.” She takes care of him, feeds him and welcomes him to the house.

The two teenagers maneuver through that uncomfortable period of attraction between lifelong best friends. What lines can be crossed, what lines should be crossed?

Hempel writes nostalgia very well. This somehow reminds me of my childhood even though non of the details match.

Notable Passage: “I mean someone that good-looking tells you what to do, you pretty much do what he says.”

Rating: 7-6-8-6 Total= 27

#180 Sunday Afternoon- Elizabeth Bowen

#180 Sunday Afternoon- Elizabeth Bowen

“Now, the sensation of wartime, that locked his inside being, began as surly to be dispelled—in the influence of this eternalized Sunday afternoon.”

It’s teatime and the rumor circle has convened. Henry, an old visiting friend is being prodded to tell of his travels and of his harrowing experience surviving a London Bombing. They are reactionary, catty, spiteful and a little agoraphobic.

-“There is only one journey now—into danger.”

-“Are things there as shocking as they say—or are they more shocking?”

-“These days, our lives seem unreal.”

Since Henry is the one to have experienced the actual bombing, you’d think that he would be holding the floor. However, it’s everyone else’s views on his situation that have more importance (to them or course). They ask for his opinion, but the get offended or contrarian at what he says.

I cant tell if the writing here is stuffy to parallel the pomposity that oozes from these characters or if the writing is just stuffy. In either case, I did not enjoy getting through this one, it’s juts not my cup of tea.

Rating: 6-5-4-3 Total= 18