On what to read

On my way into work this morning, I went over to my ever-growing stack of free magazines and picked two for the commute. I finally finished Blindness by Jose Saramago last night and I’m trying to not start a new book until I’m on the airplane to Mexico this weekend.
Blindness by the way, was very much my sort of book. It delves into what makes us human in the face of outrageous suffering and conditions imposed upon us by a terror-driven government who in the face of science choose to remain ignorant. It reminded me of
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, 1984 by George Orwell and more recently, The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
So while browsing the O, The Oprah Magazine, March 2008 Issue, I spotted these new (to me) interesting reads:
Lush Life: A Novel by Richard Price: “From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Master of the Bronx and Jersey projects, Price (Clockers) turns his unrelenting eye on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in this manic crescendo of a novel that explores the repercussions of a seemingly random shooting. When bartender Ike Marcus is shot to death after barhopping with friends, NYPD Det. Matty Clark and his team first focus on restaurant manager and struggling writer Eric Cash, who claims the group was accosted by would-be muggers, despite eyewitnesses saying otherwise.

As Matty grills Eric on the still-hazy details of the shooting, Price steps back and follows the lives of the alleged shooters—teenagers Tristan Acevedo and Little Dap Williams, who live in a nearby housing project—as well as Ike’s grieving father, Billy, who hounds the police even as leads dwindle. As the intersecting narratives hurtle toward a climax that’s both expected and shocking, Price peels back the layers of his characters and the neighborhood until all is laid bare. With its perfect dialogue and attention to the smallest detail, Price’s latest reminds readers why he’s one of the masters of American urban crime fiction.”
Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
“Product Description

From its unforgettable opening scene in the darkness of a forgotten cemetery in Buenos Aires, Nathan Englander’s debut novel The Ministry of Special Cases casts a powerful spell. In the heart of Argentina’s Dirty War, Kaddish Poznan struggles with a son who won’t accept him; strives for a wife who forever saves him; and spends his nights protecting the good name of a community that denies his existence.

When the nightmare of the disappeared children brings the Poznan family to its knees, they are thrust into the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, a terrifying, byzantine refuge of last resort. Through the devastation of a single family, Englander brilliantly captures the grief of a nation.”

I’ve grabbed a stack of books of my own to stuff my suitcase with and I’m letting you all know I won’t be online until after the 4th of July.

Hasta luego, amigos! Tulum, here we come!
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