Done Away With The Gone-Away (World)

This morning would be extra cute. Now, as a burly, red-blooded American male, I should not use the adjective “cute.” But I will today, because I was doing another shoot for SEEACA. We had another round of little animals that needed to find a home. And they were far too cute by a mile.

The big winners were “Nickson,” the little gray kitten, and “Bruno” the St. Bernard/Chow Chow mix puppy. They were mind-blowingly adorable, and I’m pretty sure they knew it. Again, if I had my own place, and wasn’t so selfish that I wasn’t sure I could take care of an animal, then I’d have grabbed the two of ‘em right then and there and made a break for it.

After the SEEACA shoot, Musse, Bill, and myself ate at Shakey’s for lunch. I filled up way too much, as I tend to do. Argh.

After work, I headed home and finished up a book that had been annoying me because I hadn’t finished it before this point. It didn’t make any sense for me to not have already read it all the way through. The book in need of the last-pages reading was The Gone-Away World.

I shall start off by saying this book is very good. Excellent, in fact. Sometimes it gets a bit self-indulgent (There’s a chapter or two that really didn’t need to drag as much as they did). But this book is incredibly well-done. And it goes in tangents. Sometimes HUGE tangents. Most of the tangents are integral to the book. Some are just flavor. And the big twist in the book will make an impact. You might miss it at first, though.

This is the kind of book that its totally okay to just go back a few pages to re-read stuff. It helps to keep you in the story. And the twist makes you look at everything with new eyes. That’s hard to do, but it is pulled off well.

I suppose my biggest problem with the book is that sometimes you really don’t know where you are. The chronology is all over the place, and its your job to know where you’re at. At the same time, the chronology is very fluid for a reason. Just go with the flow, and the pay off will be worth it.

The final scenes and the Epilogue are pretty friggin’ amazing. Endings are hard to get right. This ending was great.

Read The Gone-Away World and be ready for your mind to be exhausted and tested to the limit. But in a good way.

Topics of Conversation @ Norwalk: Best on-ramps, escape, zebra stripes, Oreo laxatives, hitting the record button, burning the swimming pool, routers, air conditioning cancer, etc.

-Nate