"I Was Only in a Childish Way Connected to the Established Order" The Harvard Coop is a good place to go if you desire to spontaneously obtain a new book with equal parts intellectual appeal and imaginative appeal.
My eye was drawn to the enchanting design of one particular book. I picked it up to deliberately salivate over said design and the enigmatic title. I began to read the cover details and the first short story nestled within its beautiful covers. It was good and had sunk its hook in my imagination.
A few weeks later, I reappeared at the Coop when Jeff had a book hankering and decided to refind and buy this book. It's called
the reasons I won't be coming.
I just finished the second to last short story and am sad that the experience is almost over. The book contains a collection of fictional stories, most told through the eyes of various unconnected narrators whose emotional and mental states we observe as the suspense of events slowly revealed presents a very human story.
The book shines both sides of the coin of hope and loss. It is one of those uplifting-depressing combos. It is uplifting because it subltely exalts what you most deeply admire, but depressing because it stages the most painful things that you have experienced in this world. However, the tone is very approachable. The author, Elliot Perlman, is obviously a clever man and very funny. His prose is slightly mystic, like poetry, but plainly comprehensible, like the daily news. The sentences are mostly short and uncomplicated. These tales are told, remember; this is not a collection of expository essays.
Here are some sample quotations:
"In infancy I was dropped by a nurse and ever since I have not been mystified by magic tricks." ("Your Niece's Speech Night")
"I have been alone before, but this is worse because now I have you to remember and nothing like you to look forward to." ("The Hong Kong Fir Doctrine")
Current Mood: AII-1