MacFly

What is a life if you can't remember it?, April 3 2010

This book centres of Liam Pennywell who has been downsized from his teaching job, moves to a smaller apartment to economize, and, after going to bed one night, wakes up in the hospital unable to remember being attacked in his own bed. As the novel progresses, he becomes obsessed with remembering the attack because, what is a life if you can't remember it? A woman he thinks to be single enters his life and we meet his three selfish daughters. As he goes through the motions of life, he seems to be rudderless or, as the tile implies, without a compass, as was Noah on his ark because he wasn't really going anywhere so a compass wasn't required. While the plot of this book wasn't terribly… Read more

Interesting Character Study, April 2 2010

That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo.This book is about a man who is travelling to Cape Cod to scatter the ashes of his father and to attend a wedding. The book actually covers a large time span that allows for some interesting character development. Fundamentally, it is a story of a grown man coming to terms with his relationship with and understanding of his parents. Sometimes the things you think you know about people aren't always the truth. Especially when seen though the filter of a childhood. This was really an interesting book and I found it difficult to put down. I wanted to know what was going to happen in the present and see what additional information would be revealed about the… Read more

Not So Good, Mar 27 2010

This is a book of modern fiction that delves into what a family looks like from the outside and how it can be very different on the inside. During a midlife crisis, the father goes back to school, has an affair, and eventually becomes a minister. The mother tries to handle the finances and starts to hide the bills throughout the house when she is unable to pay them. One of the children is basically normal while the other two are completely dysfunctional. As the years pass, two of the three children don't even talk to their parents. The main problem I had with this book is that I didn't like or care about any of the characters. They were all so odd and self-centred that you could easily… Read more