Two Quickies (in a row!)

So I made a promise to post book reviews, but I have not been doing so. Really it's not that big of a deal, since I don't even know who I promised -- I guess I promised my readers, but what does that really mean? I don't even know who reads this thing. And since the promise isn't personal in any way, i don't feel bad breaking it. I guess that might be ethically unsound, but Kant I think would agree with me. And I'll take him over Hume.

Over the past week I read three books, the first two of which I will give a brief review here in case I don't return to post a more in-depth one of them, although that remains my intent. But honestly, intent does not hold up in a court of law, so I see no reason why it should hold up in a blog. Regardless, here they are: two quickies.

Everything is Illuminated
by Jonathan Foer
Is it? I'm not sure. This book is amazing and disappointing at the same time. It's amazing to see talent in such raw form -- there really are the seeds of a fantastic writer here. His facility with the English language is great, the creativity seeps through every page, and his story holds together because, like any good storyteller, his characters are very believeable. However, it's disappointing in that it's not quite mature. For example, he does great things with language in his prose, but I almost got the feeling that he was forcing changes in style and rythym just to prove that he could. It did not quite flow, although it was well done mechanically. His main characters were well sculpted, but some of the peripheral characters seemed out of place - tossed in to make the story move along. You get my point - he just needs to add a dose of honesty to his writing.

Mountains Beyond Mountains.
This one hails from the non-fiction realm. If you want to be really inspired, I mean really inspired, then this is a good book to read. Either that, or you'll feel miserable because you're constantly comparing your life to Paul's life, and realizing that your life is worthless. In my case, I alternated between the two. Paul Farmer, as you might have guessed, is the hero of this tale. And it is indeed non-fiction -- I read this book to get an idea of his life before reading some of his works on public health. Overall the writing in this book is average, the storytelling is good but not great, and the author has one heck of a bias. But then again, you don't read this book for its questionable literary value. You read it to learn about Paul Farmer - a real life hero. And there it does not disappoint.

The one I finished most recently is Old School, by Tobias Wolff. I really enjoyed it. More on it later.