book review

This is the book that got me interested in comic books and superheroes. Michael Chabon's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay follows two Jewish cousins in the comic book industry, beginning in the late 1930s. Joe Kavalier, a talented artist who trained as an escape artist as well, has just escaped Prague with his life and is desperate to earn enough money to get his family to the safety of America. He comes to stay with his American-born cousin, Sammy Clayman, shortened American-style to Sam Clay, who has grown up feasting on comic books. The story follows their creation of the character The Escapist and several others along a deeply researched, vividly written tour that brings them through a war and into the 1950s. The popular and national history of America shifts into context as the cousins struggle through pre-war Brooklyn, a cut-throat industry, war-time Antartica, and the stasis of 1950s suburbia. It's a series of escapes, of flights of Sam's imagination.

I first heard this book on audio book 4-5 years ago. I don't recommend that approach. The tendency of each chapter to start off as though presenting a whole new world, combined with the fact that it was unfortunately abridged, left me feeling pretty confused. Still, I kept thinking about the book and its comic book background--enough to make me buy the book this summer. I remembered so many scenes as I read them--vivid imagination and writing style at work. Enjoy!

split

Okay, I'm back to book reviews!

Nothing says "Day Off" better for me than to be able to read a whole book from start to finish in a day. Sunday's choice was the powerful debut novel of my friend Swati Avasthi: Split. The writing is edgy and vivid, perfectly in the voice of 16 year-old Jace. I was immediatley caught up in Jace's story beginning the night he shows up at his brother's door, having driven halfway across the country, not having seen his brother in five years--with nowhere else to go and a "re-landscaped face, courtesy of his father's fist." The book articulately realistically explores the issue of domestic abuse, both abusers and vicitms: how (and whether) they moe on. I admire her writing, the way each page moves the story forward with perfect speed, keeps rising to its climax, and then sets us on the road to healing. I did not want to put the book down, and so, with the immense pleasure of a day off, I did not. The book is winning scads of awards. Highly recommended. Her second book is due out soon!

Kafka's Metamorphosis

I wonder what Kafka would think of this version of the Metamorphosis, where Gregor turns into something much cuter than a bug?

poem

A poem in honor of National Poetry Month: "The Creative Writing Professor Sits Down to Write a Sonnet." Picture a professor trying to write, getting distracted by 4 other things at once...

bus

I've been thinking a lot about the bus lately, now that I'm car-less: thinking about what makes a good bus route, how many people take it, etc.

I'm thinking about route: why the bus goes into the parking lot of one grocery store while zooming right past the other, why it stops in the Walmart parking lot and not Target's. (Though perhaps Target intersects with a different route.) Who planned this circuitous route? With what motivations?

In Minneapolis, you had to pay attention to which direction the bus was going. Here, the buses run their loops and meet up at a central transfer station. Which means that it takes me 35 minutes to get to work and only 15 to get home, based on where I am in the loop. I live 4.3 miles from campus, as measured on my bike. (which I do take when the weather agrees. Today, April 20th, it's snowing.)

I'm thinking about how many people take the bus. I like to count how many people there are, rooting for filled seats. Often the bus if half-full at best, although the morning bus driver, whom I've gotten to know a bit, says that in the 22 years he's been driving, Eau Claire (city of 60,000) has gone from carrying 300,000 people annually to over a million.

At the same time I'm rooting for more people to ride the bus, I'm also longing for a car. Because the truth is that, if I had one right now, I'd drive every day that I didn't bike and be happy about it. I'm grateful for the chance to think these thoughts and occasionally meet new people on the bus, but I'm also eyeing every Prius that passes by...

no more collective bargaining?

I promise I'll get off Wisconsin politics soon and return to books and teaching. Two weeks-ish ago, the Democratic state senators left the state so that the budget repair bill could not be voted on, as the senate would not have quarum. It was the only way to avoid the vote going through, and it gave time for hundreds of thousands of people to rally in Madison. Rather than come to a compromise, the remaining 19 senators have sidestepped the need for quarum by creating a new bill; they voted to end collective bargaining rights this morning without the presence of 14 elected officials, as explained by this New York Times article. As a teacher of English, I'm horrified by the lack of communication (not to mention fair play) that's gone on in our state senate.

roadblocked wisconsin

For an excellent article from WI-Sen. Jauch, click here.