I haven’t blogged in a while. There is a lot of “stuff” going on in my “life” at the moment. But I have been making progress in my power year, albeit slowly. I am going to do a series of updates today. Please remember that I am no great critic. I am pretty much a fan of everything. In the world. Which may make these “reviews” sort of tedious to read. But I guess if they are tedious to you just don’t even read them. It’s All Good.
Okay. So.
Reading the Books
I read this book at the suggestion of my friend June who gave it to me for my birthday along with a tiny precious teacup, some English tea and some Hobnobs. The accouterments might make you think that Downtown Owl is a British book but it’s not. It is set smack in the middle of Owl, North Dakota in the fall and winter of 1984. The narrative jumps around between a handful of characters and begins with a warning that only one of them will be alive at the end of the book. I promptly forgot that warning and was thusly shocked by the final chapters. Shocked! And deeply saddened!! Which is funny because I had trouble getting into the book at first. The structure turned me off a bit and the characters didn’t seem meaty enough. But damn it was a slow burner for me and I found myself so invested by the end, just crying tears for these small town fools who met their end so senselessly. Of course it doesn’t take much to get me weepy about fictional characters and their earnest pursuits as anyone who has watched any television program with me can attest. For instance: Friday Night Lights, Parks and Recreation, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Gallactica, Party Down. I am just listing any show I can think of and then quickly checking to confirm that I have cried while watching. Check, check, check, check… Okay, maybe not Party Down. But my heart does go out to the Adam Scott character each time I watch. So there you go.
Downtown Owl: Isolation and Companionship on the Great Plains.