Book!

    What would we do in this tragic time in our nation's life, if we didn't have books?  Beginning with her first Christmas, and ever since, I've give L a book. This year's choice was a winner! It came recommended in a review in the Minneapolis paper. After she read it she allowed me to read it, and it's a delight.

   The book in question is Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, copyrighted 2025. Ann Patchett writes on the jacket, Buckeye is "Full of love and war and the perilous intimacies of smalltown life. Buckeye is funny and tender realistic and strange."  One charcter even enlists in the Marines and his parents reaction reminds me of mine when I enlisted. The characters are very well developed and also very engaging.

   'The toxicity of secrets to relationships' is the theme I'd give the book. Part of its charm is the long breath of time covered thus tracking lives as they weather the storms through which people live. It is filled with deep reflections on the nature of relationships and life in general. One of the characters in early old age thinks, "This is why old people seem distant distracted. he thought. We aren't living in the past; the past is living in us. And it's talking. We get old to be able to recalibrate everything we thought was going to be important. We get old just to hear it. It says, the days, the days, the days." P. 446  

   Read it, you'll be glad you did!

Takk for alt,

Al