4 stars
This is not a perfect book, but it was surprisingly good and engaging to read. Given the time period it covered (the 1960s-1990s), I didn't think I'd be all that into it, but it was the third book of a trilogy I had enjoyed up to this point, so I girded my loins and picked up this freaking monstrously gigantic book and started to read. And read. And read. If you have been wondering why book reviews have been sparse lately on this blog, it's not just because I've been playing so much Oblivion -- this book took quite a bit of time to get through, even though I kept at it pretty steadily.
But if you aren't scared off by its somewhat intimidating size, it was a very interesting recounting of a period of American history (from a decidedly left-wing point of view) that I at least never studied in school. I found the civil rights era material the most engaging because it just boggles the mind to think about these things happening so recently, and so many people getting assassinated, and the cops taking part in beating up protesters...and then I think about all the black guys (and kids!) being shot/choked to death in this country right now, and maybe I shouldn't be so shocked.
I also laughed that one of the point of view characters is Jack Kennedy's mistress. Hah, of course!
The main criticisms on Amazon seem to be (1) too leftist and (2) too much sex. Often these complaints came from the same people (Spock brow). I will say that it is undeniably, unapologetically from a left-wing perspective, but I found that interesting. You do not have to take this as some kind of historical gospel. If anything, it's a useful contrast to the rah-rah conservative take on these events that is dominant. As for the sex -- yes, there was sex. It was not gratuitous...or stupid (like in 9,999,984 of the last 10,000,000 "romantic thrillers" etc. published). It seemed very reasonable for the context.
Winter is Not an Eternity -- Sunday, 12/14/14
Robert and I spent some time going through closets (including the Harry Potter room), throwing away junk (good-bye 99% of the crap from my grad school career!), and packing boxes of books and such. It was a somewhat warm day (highs in the 50s), made warmer by all this activity, so I wore a lightweight long-sleeved T and ballet flats! That's right -- no socks, people. Don't despair -- it got cold again soon enough, but there was a magical day there where we were reminded that winter won't last forever. We got a small taste of the spring to come....in another four months or so.
I also inhaled about 300 pounds of dust and got a sinus headache that turned into a migraine and kept me home on Monday. I almost never do this, but my head was so bad that I ended up eating an early lunch and crashing in bed around noon and sleeping for about 4.5 hours. (I woke up a few times in a daze to roll over and go back to sleep immediately.) I could tell that this was the kind of illness sleep that "doesn't count" in some way because I was tired at my normal time Monday night and was thankful to go to bed and fall asleep almost immediately and sleep the whole night long.
I spent the whole next week battling the aftermath of this onslaught on my sinuses with recurring sinus headaches and an earache at one point. Bah! But like 95% of my books are packed, so at least I'm suffering for a higher purpose.
*Grey/silver striped T (Kohls)
Grey jeans (Kohls)
Rose gold ballet flats (thrifted, Old Navy)
Rose/grey pearly "planet" necklace (...? I forget)
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