Lightweight
I finished Amy Tan’s Saving Fishes from Drowning yesterday. I’m not often drawn to books where the setting is in Asia. This one was in Burma, specifically, but the premise intrigued me so much since it included a ghost as a narrator and 11 American tourists who disappear on a lake. I found it an excellent read, engrossing, rich in detail, imagery, and characters, and a fascinating look at a country I honestly never think about. It impressed upon me the need to broaden my reading horizons more. I’m really bad about sticking with one genre and not getting out of it, but I’m denying myself so much.
The problem is I get fed up with books whose “big secret” or “reveal” happens to be a case of incest, abuse, or rape. This happens, for some reason, in a lot of the books I stumble across. I’m not able to handle these horrific stories because my imagination is so vivid they stick with me for days. And I end up worrying about the characters - did they receive proper help and therapy? Were they able to extricate themselves from that situation? And then I realize I've spend a couple days of my life being being concerned about people who don't actually exist.
Now this may seem a complete hypocrisy considering my favorite books are murder mysteries. But I would say my taste runs more to “Murder Light” or the cozy variety than Patricia Cornwell procedurals where I get too much detail, way too much detail, about how a person died and then how the medical coroner performed the autopsy.
At the end of the day, I think I may be a literary lightweight after all.
P.S. Writing this, I realize that there was brutality in the Amy Tan book (Burma is, after all, run by a military regime), but that wasn't really what the entire book hinged on, if that makes sense.
The problem is I get fed up with books whose “big secret” or “reveal” happens to be a case of incest, abuse, or rape. This happens, for some reason, in a lot of the books I stumble across. I’m not able to handle these horrific stories because my imagination is so vivid they stick with me for days. And I end up worrying about the characters - did they receive proper help and therapy? Were they able to extricate themselves from that situation? And then I realize I've spend a couple days of my life being being concerned about people who don't actually exist.
Now this may seem a complete hypocrisy considering my favorite books are murder mysteries. But I would say my taste runs more to “Murder Light” or the cozy variety than Patricia Cornwell procedurals where I get too much detail, way too much detail, about how a person died and then how the medical coroner performed the autopsy.
At the end of the day, I think I may be a literary lightweight after all.
P.S. Writing this, I realize that there was brutality in the Amy Tan book (Burma is, after all, run by a military regime), but that wasn't really what the entire book hinged on, if that makes sense.
posted by Lisa | 9:14 AM
4 Comments:
Adding this to my list...;)
This really shows your compassion to the world, Shell! I wonder why you feel as if you 'should' read other books. Books are there to be enjoyed, and if the twists or plots of some aren't your preference, there's a whole world of other options!!
If you're looking for more to expand cultural horizons, the last one that I really loved that did it for me was Time Traveler's Wife. It has some dark moments, but I really enjoyed it! (Also, Kite Runner)
Jules- I think you would enjoy it.
Amy- This probably goes back to that old English major peer pressure - where everyone in class was nodding at the deep insights and I was sitting there thinking, "I just don't get this..." ;-)
"...there was brutality in the Amy Tan book (Burma is, after all, run by a military regime), but that wasn't really what the entire book hinged on, if that makes sense."
I can relate. I felt the same way about "Three Men & A Baby" and the literarily creative use of the word "s***" as both literal poop and as a street term for drugs. :) I'll have to check out Amy Tan - I read "Women of the Silk" and "Secret of the Fan" (different authors) about life in China, so there must be a Far Eastern wind in the air....
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