November 21, 2004
Book review time
Well, sometimes Amazon Recommends gets it right. (Of course, the blurb by Neil Gaiman on the back cover didn't hurt, either.) I ordered Craig Thompson's Blankets through inter-library loan a while ago, but wasn't able to pick it up until Tuesday evening. It was so incredibly good that I tore through it (in spite of having no time to read anything anymore) and finished it on Friday night. It's a wonderfully told, beautifully illustrated tale, poignant and sweet and full of truth.
I had also ordered David Sedaris's Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, expecting another Me Talk Pretty One Day. I happened to catch him on NPR a few weekends ago, telling a story about his sister, Lisa. His delivery adds to the telling, and I found myself laughing aloud. Reading these same stories, however, I would come to the end and feel a little sad, or unsettled. The first half of the book concerns his relationships with various family members, and each story left me feeling slightly more depressed than the last. Fortunately, mid-way through, the mood lightened. Sedaris is at his best when he balances the surreal and the mundane, the dysfunction with the love. I'm glad that I stuck it out; the latter half was worth the wait.