I finished a couple of books this week. I’ve already forgotten what they were but I think I liked them.
Oh yeah: The Ball and the Cross by G.K. Chesterton was the first book. It’s a weird and wonderful novel full of magical realism. The plot involves a duel between a devout Catholic and the Atheist he challenges. They keep trying to fight but people keep stopping them. Eventually, their united determination to kill each other in defense of their opposite beliefs becomes an unshakeable friendship. Parts of it are very funny but ultimately it’s a philosophical adventure much like C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy. Both stories end with the deaths of those who thought they could make a bargain with institutional hatred.
The duelists live to a happy old age because finishing their fight was never the point of the story.
The second book was Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple, who wrote Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which I loved.
Today Will Be Different was not as good as Bernadette. I didn’t like the main character. AT all. But the story is so well written that it just dragged me in. In a nutshell, it was about broken people and how they got that way, which usually bores the hell out of me. Everyone is broken, that’s the human condition. Suck it up. This story takes place on the day the main character thinks she’s discovered that her husband is cheating on her. I only recommend it if you can finish it in a day. It’s not worth more time than that. Semple is such a good story teller that I want to read This One is Mine, as well. Good authors are hard to come by, I’m not going to drop one just because I didn’t love her main character. There are a few authors I’ve quit but it takes a couple of thoroughly bad books.
I hope she doesn’t turn out to be like Emily Giffin and Audrey Niffenegger who each had exactly one good book in them.
Next up: Island of the World by Michael O’Brien. I loved Voyage to Alpha Centauri, so I’m really looking forward to it.