{"id":2591,"date":"2010-01-20T11:45:07","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T19:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=2591"},"modified":"2010-01-20T11:45:07","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T19:45:07","slug":"blame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/01\/20\/blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Blame"},"content":{"rendered":"
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"I never thought I’d be anything but antsy as hell around another person."<\/p>\n

"Blame<\/a>"
Michelle Huneven<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Silence bothers me.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if nothing is going to be said, why do I have to be here anyway?\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t I just stay home alone and read a good book?<\/p>\n

Maybe that’s what bonds us, we book lovers.\u00c2\u00a0 We yearn to be connected in a world that seems unfathomable.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like we’re cars trying to enter the Merritt Parkway, with its short, daunting access ramps.\u00c2\u00a0 We can see the cars humming along in the roadway, so effortlessly, but how do we get on the highway?<\/p>\n

Music, when done right, delivers the same connection.\u00c2\u00a0 Being alone on your bedroom floor, spinning the record, thinking if you could just meet the singer, he or she would understand you, they’d get you, you’d feel connected.<\/p>\n

My favorite lyric of all time comes from a Jackson Browne record.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not a famous song, it’s the last track on side one of "Late For The Sky", it’s entitled "The Late Show".<\/p>\n

Now to see things clear it’s hard enough I know<\/span>
While you’re waiting for reality to show<\/span>
Without dreaming of the perfect love <\/span>
And holding it so far above<\/span>
That if you stumbled on to someone real, you’d never know<\/span><\/p>\n

Ain’t that the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 TV and magazines will tell you you need perfection, nothing less will suit you.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear all this drivel about soul mates.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where you can’t be involved with anybody.\u00c2\u00a0 Then you open your heart to imperfection, you open yourself up to the warmth of another human being who wants to connect and you feel all warm and fuzzy.\u00c2\u00a0 Life isn’t about another notch on the belt, it’s not about being Tiger Woods, it’s about going deep.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, that’s a great song off Marc Cohn’s first album, "Dig Down Deep".\u00c2\u00a0 He wants to stay up all night and get into it.<\/p>\n

And believe me, I’m capable of doing so.\u00c2\u00a0 If the key fits the lock just right, if I feel the other person truly wants to hear what I have to say.\u00c2\u00a0 I can dip and doodle, I can rivet you.\u00c2\u00a0 But only if I get the green light.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m looking for the green light.\u00c2\u00a0 But as Jackson says earlier in "The Late Show":

Maybe people only ask you how you’re doing<\/span>
‘Cause that’s easier than letting on how little they could care<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s great when you’ve got a true friend somewhere.\u00c2\u00a0 But in this modern world, although you can be connected via e-mail, even iChat, I find it still leaves plenty of down time.\u00c2\u00a0 And that feeling of loneliness.<\/p>\n

Jerry Maguire tried to fight off the creepiness of being alone by never being alone.\u00c2\u00a0 That doesn’t work, that’s just desperation.\u00c2\u00a0 But the balance…\u00c2\u00a0 That’s hard to achieve.\u00c2\u00a0 Either you’re in social situations yearning for some breathing room or you’re home alone, looking to connect.<\/p>\n

That’s when you turn to a good book.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s because the authors know they can’t make any money.<\/p>\n

Or maybe it’s because they know they can’t be cultural icons.<\/p>\n

I’m not talking about Dan Brown.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not talking about Stephen King.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m talking about the fiction writers who will never break through, but are adored by their audience.\u00c2\u00a0 Readers press their books into the hands of friends like religious scrolls.\u00c2\u00a0 You must read this!<\/p>\n

Then again, who can you trust?<\/p>\n

I certainly can’t trust music reviews.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d like to, but I can’t.\u00c2\u00a0 But book reviews can still be trustworthy.\u00c2\u00a0 And if you cross-reference the Sunday supplement with Amazon and award-winning lists, you can determine if a book is good for you.\u00c2\u00a0 And on your Kindle, you can download a sample chapter for a final determination.\u00c2\u00a0 Either it grabs you or it doesn’t.<\/p>\n

Michelle Huneven’s "Blame"<\/a> grabbed me.<\/p>\n

Not at first.<\/p>\n

Then again, reading the opening chapter you’d think the book is about Joey Hawthorne.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s not.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about Patsy MacLemoore, the English professor who pierced Joey’s adolescent ears, off center, since she was drunk when she did it.<\/p>\n

And there begins the real story.\u00c2\u00a0 How Patsy was a winner in every category that counted, aced all the tests, but couldn’t function in life, she drank to cope.<\/p>\n

I used to drink to cope.<\/p>\n

It’s funny when you stop.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only are you even more anxious, you can see those who continue in your old footsteps.\u00c2\u00a0 Tanking up to overcome their inhibitions, to become the life of the party.<\/p>\n

We all want to be the life of the party.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I’m going to tell you what happens in "Blame<\/a>".\u00c2\u00a0 I wouldn’t want to ruin it.<\/p>\n

But what really happens is life.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the life of a Top Forty record, where everybody is fabulous and powerful, opening doors and shutting down intruders, but real life, where you win some and you lose some, where you’re confused plenty and don’t always get it right.<\/p>\n

I read Ms Huneven’s first book, "Round Rock".\u00c2\u00a0 It came in a box from my buddy at Random House.\u00c2\u00a0 I was ultimately disappointed, I swore off her.\u00c2\u00a0 Until I saw "Blame" listed in a year-end Top Ten.\u00c2\u00a0 Until Kate, my bookstore owning friend, started testifying about it. Usually one recommendation is not enough, we triangulate our sources, there are so many available, and when the sight zeroes in on a target, we take the plunge.<\/p>\n

I guess I’m writing this because I’m angry.\u00c2\u00a0 You see the book ended.\u00c2\u00a0 What am I supposed to do now?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like coming home from summer camp.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to go back, you want to know what happens next.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s impossible.<\/p>\n

I’m not recommending "Blame<\/a>".\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t even know you.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you recognize yourself in the above, I’d pick it up.<\/p>\n

\n
\nBlame by Michelle Huneven<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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"I never thought I’d be anything but antsy as hell around another person." "Blame"Michelle Huneven Silence bothers me.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if nothing is going to be said, why do I have to be here anyway?\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t I just stay home alone and read a good book? Maybe that’s what bonds us, we book lovers.\u00c2\u00a0 We yearn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s96vPs-blame","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2592,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions\/2592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}