Kunta Kinte in the Iron Kelly Gang
Dear Liz,
I’m glad you’re well and have just been distracted, not struck under rubble for two months. You really should start taking out catastrophe insurance. You’d make a pretty penny, being the human lightning rod that you are. Who is that despondent boy to the extreme left of your family snapshot? Chilean volcanoes make him sad.
Not that I’ve been immune to distraction. See the nearly two week gap between this post and your last post. I really have no excuse either. I only had one real class this quarter! My main project has been researching for a novel. Coincidentally, our sliding scales of enthusiasm match exactly.
I liked everything you said about Gilead, but I can’t help but wonder if stretching the book out over four weeks contributed to its seeming to never end… Canada does seem like a mighty literary place for women; I think that image has a lot to do with Canada having Mavis Gallant, Munro, and Atwood. Pretty broad spectrum to have for national superstars. But what’s the difference between Ottawa and Iowa City anyway? MaRo would fit in anywhere above the Mason-Dixon line, no further than the Appalachians or the Rockies. Don’t even want to know what happens to her in front of a Chilean volcano.
So I’ve arranged our schedule of Peter Carey for the next four weeks (see sidebar under the book cover that makes it look like we’re reading a mash-up of Roots and The Man in the Iron Mask). If you don’t mind, I kept it a little lighter this week in case school decides to make me pay for a quarter of relative independence. This book looks pretty good; my copy’s cover has two wild, dirty horses that look like they don’t have much time for meandering flashbacks. :-)
Looking forward to your reactions next week!
- Aaron
