Book Chatter

Hello there. You probably forgot all about me. The Boy reminded me yesterday that I did not post a Sunday Salon post. Apparently, he looks for them. I had no idea. Well, Sunday has come and gone but I just wanted to pop in to say hello. I had quite a weekend which kept me busy and because of it, I just never got around to posting. Plus, I am still using that lame laptop of mine and it’s glitchy, at best.

Friday night, I completely lost my mind and ripped out all of the downstairs carpet. Why? Because the dear Otter Pup, AKA Chloe, Squirrel, Pupper Dog, got scared during a storm we had and did a number on the carpet. Not once, but several times and it was just too much to deal with. So, I ripped it out. Plus, this post on Pinterest piqued my interest. Stained concrete will be the end result. We spent all of Saturday doing prep work and then this weekend we will do the final prep work and then apply the stain. It will be nice to finish this weekend, but I am okay with it taking another week in order to get it right.

Here are some pictures. The first one, you can see the huge stain we made while cleaning the carpet. We have one of those home carpet cleaners. We always thought it was doing a really good job. Nope. It may have been clean on the surface, but underneath the carpet and pad… ugh. I never want carpet again.

After all that ripping, and sweeping and sealing, we went out to eat and I had one heck of a reaction from three bites of a tortilla. It was supposed to be a corn tortilla, but apparently it wasn’t. It did look a little suspect. Needless to say, after all the dust from the carpet and then accidentally glutenizing myself, I had the mother of all allergic reactions. Blisters down throat, near fainting and dizziness. It took me awhile to figure out what it was because I really didn’t think it was that tortilla. Needless to say, I collapsed into a heap and was out. The pup checked on me once to see if I was breathing but no one else did!! I woke nearly four hours later and they were eating dinner. Hello??

When Sunday came along, I was not feeling up to hitting the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, but The Girl saw the event insert and noticed that she missed Judy Blume on Saturday. Talk about guilt! I was barely functioning and I had no idea she would be so upset about missing her but it also warmed my heart a tiny bit that she was so passionate about seeing her. That said, I sucked it up and off we went.

We did not see Judy Blume, although she was there because we saw people waiting in line to see her.

I did not buy any books. I was REALLY out of it.

I took silly pictures with my phone because I wasn’t focused enough to do otherwise.

All in all, it was a fun trip. Normally, I attend the panels but I always regret not having the time to browse so this was a nice change of pace.

On the reading front, I am still juggling a handful of books and doing well, but still behind on my reviews. I suppose I will never catch-up if I continue to read. If everyone could have such problems! Ha!

The Orphan Master’s Son
By Adam Johnson
(Random House, Hardcover, 9780812992793, January 2012, 464pp.)

The Short of It:

This is the book that derailed my writing for six weeks!! I was caught-up in the adventure of reading it, but as a story, its meandering quality prevented me from loving it, AND at the time, made it almost impossible for me to write about IT, or anything.

The Rest of It:

The title is misleading. Jun Do (John Doe) lives in an orphanage in Chongjin, North Korea. He is introduced to us as the Orphan Master’s son, so in theory, he is not an orphan and constantly reminds the reader of this. However, he is treated like an orphan and given a name from a list of martyrs so you have to assume that he is, in fact, an orphan.

When the orphanage begins to lose its battle to famine, Jun Do is enlisted into the army. There, he performs missions in tunnels operating under zero-light conditions. The fact that he spends so much time in the dark is not a coincidence. This is North Korea after all. Anyway, after this adventure he gets a job translating radio transmissions, ends up in Texas, makes friends with a senator’s wife… kidnaps people and let’s not forget when he switches identity with Commander Ga, a national hero.

This was a bizarre read. Bizarre, but utterly fascinating. I liked Jun Do. I think that is why I decided to stay with him, no matter what he was doing, or what was going on around him. I knew I liked him when he kidnapped people and somehow, I still felt sympathy for him. Is he taken advantage of? Is that why I felt sorry for him? No. I never once felt that he was ever taken advantage of, but he moves with the times. He continues to move forward no matter what is thrown at him and although he cannot be considered a hero, I did find his resiliency to be admirable.

Although there isn’t too much said about Kim Jong il, he is present throughout the novel. The translated radio broadcasts, which in reality function as a form of brain washing and a way to spread propaganda, are peppered throughout. I was constantly reminded of who was in charge and it gave a very 1984-esque tone to the novel. This, I very much enjoyed.

What I enjoyed less, was the meandering nature of the story itself. Jun Do was here, there…heck he was everywhere. There are girls on boats, there’s fishing… there are famous singers and girls getting sent to Pyongyang, ultimately, to be prostitutes. There’s even a famous actress whose shine is just beginning to wear off (think Sunset Boulevard). This was the perfect example of too much.

Even though there was a lot going on, I zipped through this book, only to sit and wonder what the heck I’d say about it. It was surreal and sometimes reminded me of Haruki Murakami’s writing, but the payoff wasn’t as good and it took me weeks to sort through my feelings. I do like a book that forces me to think, but I’m not sure the author’s goal was to completely put a halt to my everyday life. THAT is how much I thought about this book.

Now here you are, wondering if you should read it. If you are the type of reader who likes to work through a book and not have things handed to you on a silver platter, then you might enjoy this book. If you like adventure, then there is plenty of that to be found within its pages. And I have to say, I did enjoy Jun Do’s character although I never did figure him out. The book itself was a fast read and quite different from anything I’ve read before. That’s saying something, right?

Source: Sent to me by the publisher via Net Galley.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Chatting with friends about books and life…