Category Archives: Bookish Talk

Friday Finds: Tinkers

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Friday Finds is hosted by Should Be Reading.

Here’s the blurb from the publisher:

An old man lies dying. Confined to bed in his living room, he sees the walls around him begin to collapse, the windows come loose from their sashes, and the ceiling plaster fall off in great chunks, showering him with a lifetime of debris: newspaper clippings, old photographs, wool jackets, rusty tools, and the mangled brass works of antique clocks. Soon, the clouds from the sky above plummet down on top of him, followed by the stars, till the black night covers him like a shroud. He is hallucinating, in death throes from cancer and kidney failure.A methodical repairer of clocks, he is now finally released from the usual constraints of time and memory to rejoin his father, an epileptic, itinerant peddler, whom he had lost 7 decades before. In his return to the wonder and pain of his impoverished childhood in the backwoods of Maine, he recovers a natural world that is at once indifferent to man and inseparable from him, menacing and awe inspiring.

Tinkers is about the legacy of consciousness and the porousness of identity from one generation the next. At once heartbreaking and life affirming, it is an elegiac meditation on love, loss, and the fierce beauty of nature.

This book is getting a ton of press right now. I’ve seen it mentioned three times in the past week and everyone has had wonderful things to say about it. I don’t own it…yet.

What did you find this week?

Moby Dick Monday: November 30, 2009 (Week 3)

Welcome to Moby Dick Monday! This is where we read four pages a day and then post about what we’ve read. Consider it an adventure of sorts!

My Story Re-Cap:

After a lovely night at the Inn, Ishmael takes a stroll through New Bedford. Apparently, New Bedford is host to not only sailors but cannibals and savages alike. Ishmael is taken with the number of “green” Vermonters and New Hampshire men that arrive with the hopes of becoming whalers. Ishmael is amazed by this, yet this is his reason for being there as well.

As he wanders around, he visits a chapel where grieving families have congregated to mourn the loss of their family members. Father Mapple is giving the sermon which happens to be the story of Jonah. You remember him, he was the one that got swallowed by a fish. Anyway, what’s interesting about Father Mapple is that he climbs into the pulpit by way of “man ropes.” Ishmael finds this incredibly odd. Does he do this out of respect to the sailors that have been lost at sea? As Ishmael ponders this, he sees his friend Queequeg. As you may recall from last week’s post, Queequeg is Ishmael’s cannibalistic bed-mate. Ishmael sees Queequeg’s tender side as he mourns those lost.

Back at the Inn, Ishmael watches Queequeg enjoy a smoke and decides to join him. It is after this smoke, that Queequeg grabs Ishmael, leans his forehead against him and declares them married, which in sea terms means bosom buddies. It is after this little display of affection that Ishmael learns that Queequeg is actually the son of a King and comes from an island called Kokovoko, which is not noted on any map but click here for a good chuckle and a line right out of the book.

Ishmael shares his plan to board a whaling ship and Queequeg vows to join whatever vessel Ishmael is on.

My Rambling Thoughts:

This past week was a difficult one for reading with Thanksgiving and Black Friday and all but I did manage to get my pages in although this chunk was much more challenging than last week’s chunk. For one, the sermon (Jonah) was way, way too long and bored me to tears. I re-read that chapter three times trying to get through it. As soon as I got past, it all was well again. I am starting to get a feel for Melville’s writing which is making it easier to digest and I find myself going past the four pages a day, although not by much. I am looking forward to Ishmael and Queequeg actually getting on a boat.

Reading Along With Me:

Jill/Softdrink of Fizzy Thoughts
Jill of RhapsodyinBooks
Dar of Peeking Between the Pages
Eva of A Striped Armchair
Wisteria from Bookworm’s Dinner
Gavin from Page247 (will join us in mid to late December)
Claire from kiss a cloud (will join us in 2010)

For those that are participating, share your post links in comments. What do you think so far? Oh, and if anyone wants to join us just leave me a message below.