Ti | Book Chatter

It’s Friday and I am feeling a bit chatty so I thought, why not chat with you all on this fine, Friday morn?

It’s commencement time here at the university. The bleachers are up. The jasmine is in bloom and preparations are being made for the big event next week. I love this time of year. I graduated from this university, but it was the year of the big Northridge quake so I didn’t get to walk that year. The ceremony took place, but the school was in a shambles and I had lost my apartment, so my mind was on other things. At the time I thought that skipping it was the best choice. Seeing all the grads in their caps and gowns makes me nostalgic for what I missed, but I can’t help but be happy for them.

So what do I do? I get a job here so I can experience commencement every year. No one knows it, but when the College of Arts, Media and Communications is up on that stage, I walk the 50 feet from my office, to the commencement platform and PRETEND that it’s me. What can I say? It works.

On another note, my 17th wedding anniversary is this Saturday. Hope the RAPTURE does not interfere with my plans for an elegant, chinese dinner…out.

On my walk yesterday I tripped on the caution tape surrounding the commencement platform and dropped my Blackberry. I was out of commission for the day, but when I hit the Verizon store the guy put it back together for me with spare pieces since my contract wasn’t up until June 10th. Thank you Verizon guy. While there, The Boy got a Droid X which he paid for with his own money. I have to say, the Droid X is pretty nifty. Oh, and did you know that Verizon is ditching their $29.99 a month unlimited data plan? Yep, with the iPhone 5, they are going to a tiered plan. Ick. BTW, The Girl said that I “do not love her” because I would not buy her an iPhone last night but when I offered to buy her a Strawberry Cream Frapp with extra whip.. I became Mommy of the Year again. Frapp, iPhone… it’s the little things.

I’ve been reading all the BEA prep posts and although I am not attending, my mind is swimming from all that info. The only way to really be a good attendee is to go every year and become a pro at it. Seriously. I am a person who likes to plan WHEN she plans, so planning a trip like this one would probably send me into early retirement. I’d be too rigid and OCD about it. That I know. It’s probably a good thing I am not going because I’d be a basket case upon my return. I do hope those of you who are going have a great time though!

Okay, off to do some work now.

Await Your Reply
By Dan Chaon
(Ballantine Books, Paperback, 9780345476036, June 2011, 368pp.)

The Short of It:

Identity and self are of importance here, yet it’s an identity other than their own that drives these characters. The inability to accept who they are is the main focus of this tragic tale.

The Rest of It:

In a collection of seemingly, unrelated stories, a group of characters come together in unexpected ways. Miles goes on a quest to find his missing brother, Hayden. Hayden is afflicted with mental illness and although Miles is well aware that anything could have happened to him, he somehow senses that Miles has gotten himself into trouble. Ryan is a young man going nowhere. He receives a call from his birth father Jay, who he originally thought to be his uncle, and decides to join him in his life of crime. Lucy, a recent high school grad, decides to take off with George, her high school history teacher to live in an abandoned mansion in Nebraska.

Interwoven between these stories is an email scam that is all too familiar in this day and age. The old phishing scam where someone emails you to tell you that you’ve been left millions of dollars and that all they need is your personal information. This is where the title of the book comes into play.

As the story plays out, and the relationships between these characters make more sense, you can’t help but feel sorry for these people. None of them are particularly likable and none of them are strong enough to pull themselves out of the hole they’ve dug for themselves. They are a miserable group of people, depressed in different ways, yet depressed just the same. Their desire for a better life tugs at the heartstrings because they are so real. So desperate and so real.

This is one of those quiet books that forces you to consider the human soul and its desperation and utter loneliness. It’s bleak. True. Yet hope exists, it’s just a tad out of reach for these characters and their struggle to find it is what keeps you reading. Dan Chaon knows people and is not afraid to expose all of their insecurities. This is what I appreciated most about this novel. His ability to expose all of their vulnerabilities in a realistic way. Overall, a very satisfying read.

Source: Borrowed from the library.