so i spent this past sunday afternoon reading two emotionally taxing books: the things they carried by tim o'brien and the lovely bones by alice sebold.
the things they carried
the things they carried is a shocking memoir from the vietnam war written by a veteran. it deals with war stories and not war stories. the writing is so realistic that the reader can almost feel the explosion of the nearby land mine. o'brien brings the reader so far into the story that it's impossible not to feel emotionally attached.
this one was difficult for me. the language is rough. the description is gruesome. but that wasn't the hard part. there was no emotional resolution. i put the book down feeling horrible. i felt horrible for not fighting. i felt horrible for fighting. i felt like running to canada. i felt like enlisting. and then i realized that this was a book. i didn't live in the seventies. i didn't know kiowa. i didn't know jimmy cross. but o'brien made me feel like i did. i mourned for the two that died. i learned morales from another. i learned the finer points of telling a war story from yet another. it was intense. it was painful. it was brilliant.
the lovely bones
the lovely bones is a painfully beautiful story about the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl. every moment of this book is hard to read. again, it ends and there is no happy feeling. no warm fuzzy. just a cold emptiness. it is one of the best books i have ever read.
suzie, her good judgment losing to her avid scientific curiosity, finds herself the victim of a serial rapist. her spirit ends up in heaven which is much like the playground at her junior high school. from there she watches her family and friends deal with her death and begin to move on. she sees her killing still living just down the street from her family. she sees the boy she loved become friends with the only girl who can still feel her presence.
there are more heartbreaking moments in this book than in any i have read in recent memory. i got completely freaked out so many times that at 1am (because i absolutely could not go to bed without finishing this book) i got up and locked the door to my room. i honestly felt like a serial rapist might come bursting through the door bent on killing me. the writing captures the character of suzie so perfectly that the reader cannot help but be sucked into the story.
reflection
i would definitely recommend both of the books to most people. i would recommend the things they carried to people who enjoy memoirs, non-fiction, historical fiction, and tragedy. it is not for the faint-hearted. i'd say that most people would find the lovely bones to be a good book, if not a good story. there is very little good in the story. it too is not for the faint-hearted, but for completely different reasons.
i would also recommend throwing a happy/fluff/emotionless book in between the two. i was kind of depressed most of the day monday.
happy (or at least good) reading.
6 comments:
i've been itching to read "the things they carried" for a while. i'd love to borrow it from you sometime this summer.
and if you never read the esquire story i linked to on my blog a while ago titled "the things that carried him," about the journey of a soldier's corpse back home from iraq, i very highly recommend it.
Hey Dan. It's Josh again. Never heard back from you in our discussion from a few posts ago. Just wondered if you have given any thoughts to my last question. If not and you don't care to answer my question thats fine too. But I was just curious.
I decided it was best not to get into an argument or debate or even a discussion with you about all that because I don't think that there's anything you or I could say to make that discussion productive or beneficial.
things. not thinigs. sorry. typo. can. not. overlook. that. :)
I found it quite beneficial not for argument sake or for debate, but to gain perspective on how you (and others similar to your position) approach such matters. I thought the conversation was quite informative. At least for me it was. I don't quite understand why people cannot engage in dialogue from different perspectives in a respective manner not for the purpose of changing minds and hearts (which is God's job), but for gaining understanding.
I agree, but I honestly don't think that our conversation would end up being beneficial.
And then there's also the fact that this blog post has absolutely nothing to do with that conversation...just an observation.
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