Since it's basically been a kosher Club Med type of vacation until now with all the holiday and shabat time, I've been working in some reading by the pool. Regret to say that the Franzen naysayers might be right, or else I've been too influenced by their critiques, but finding the book a little tiresome half-way through it. Agree that the prose is a bit flat and it seems that my interest waned after finishing the first (?) Patty autobiographical chunk. (Ever since Garp, I've been a sucker for the book-within-a-book thing). Also, the characters are beginning to bore me, never cared much for self-righteous lefties and the Richard Katz, swarthy / edgy Lothario character wears thin. (Also reminds me of the Nathan character in Sophie's Choice, although it's been ages since I read that book).
On the brighter side of reading by the pool, I'm getting some mileage from my Kindle and must say that it is ideal for this. Before I'd schlep along a bunch of books, because you need back up. With the Kindle that's no problem, load it up with as much as you want, especially those free samples. So I got to check out Howard Jacobson, The Finkler Question,and loved it... right up my alley. Vow to read more of him.
I had also downloaded some of the complete works of Flavius Josephus. Remembered learning about him back in elementary school, how he was a man of the world, an integrated Jew who traveled in the highest circles and essentially chronicled the history of the Jews until his time (about 2000 years ago). What amazes me about this monumental historical work is the great efforts he made to be objective, to set the record straight. Until Fla-Jo, it seems like history was written subjectively, each people fancifully writing their own history, which read more like mythology than anything else. Fla-Jo brings in third party accounts to back up his historical assertions. In any case, fascinating stuff that I would never have read had I not had my Kindle. Loving my technology...
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