New Field Lines Feature: Book Blogging

In response to this post, my longtime blog friend spants agreed to participate in a stress-free, low commitment, minimally structured, very low-key book club. I mentioned that I missed my book club in Tampa. I missed reading books I might not normally read and I especially missed exchanging thoughts and opinions of books. spants is an avid reader herself and agreed to read anything that wasn't "chick lit" and preferably something that "doesn't suck". So here goes.

In honor of the recently deceased John Updike, we have chosen Rabbit, Run, one of his most critically acclaimed novels and first in the Rabbit series. I will be posting my thoughts on the book sometime during the last week of April. I'm note sure if spants will be making her own post for it, or just posting her opinions here. Either way, it should prove to be an interesting experiment. Fellow bloggers, feel free to post your own opinions of the book on your own blog or here if you feel moved to do so. Readers and lurkers are encouraged to participate as well to whatever extent they are comfortable. I'm excited to read this book, but more excited to have a lively discussion in about a month!

The Year of Magical Thinking

I just finished reading this month's book group selection, Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. It chronicles Didion's first year as a widow, during which her daughter was also seriously ill. Didion objectively recounts a journey into paralyzing grief as she tries to cope with losing her husband of forty years and the prospect of losing her daughter. It combines her raw emotions of loss with the clarity of hindsight into her marriage. Her speculation of whether he had premonitions of his own death is intertwined with instances which she terms "the vortex"- the tendency of routine sights to trigger a cascade of memories. It was beautiful, and heartbreaking. Stunning with its nakedness and at times I laughed out loud as she admits to the absurdity of her thoughts during that horrific year. It was the absolute wrong book to read days before leaving my husband for the summer.