Joel A.
Bacon
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By dajob
By dajob
By dajob
“You don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none.”
“If you’re like me and find that part of the fun of reading really intimidating books, that everyone talks about and nobody reads, is for all the sophisticated fart jokes, you will not be disappointed.”
It is funny, weird, sad, revelatory, interesting, mysterious, and full of imagery and metaphors that will linger in my mind for a long time to come. . . . Welcome to Macondo.
“Where shall a man find sweetness to surpass
his own home and his parents? In far lands
he shall not, though he find a house of gold.”
Robinson is a master storyteller. She does not display this mastery with pyrotechnic twists and turns in her stories, but with a steady stare right at the thing in the middle of a person.
The goal of reading a Franzen book is not to find examples of how to live, but to better inform yourself about the people you want to avoid becoming.
A Parable
Like life itself, the action of the story is often hidden beneath the surface with winks and nods from one character to another.
“It’s all the same to him whether he lives or dies. What is his life worth? He won’t grudge his life, but I have something to live for, thank God.”
“Human life is but a series of footnotes to a vast obscure unfinished masterpiece.”
“The simpler and sillier the Joke, the better a big crowd likes it.”