Happy Sunday, readers! This is my first post for The Sunday Salon and I’m already enjoying being a part of the community. I decided to join after a recent conversation with my husband regarding why I don’t read more on the weekends. When we are at the cabin — which is internet, phone, laundry, and cable-free, I read 1-3 books and just love it. But at home the details of life keep me from reading somehow. So, I decided to join the Sunday Salon and “force” myself to read at least an hour on as many Sundays as I can manage.
I cordially invite my readers to do the same — I know not all of you have your own blogs, so feel free to comment on my blog on whatever you are able to read on Sundays and we can have a mini-Salon within the larger Salon!
Since I already post on what I’m reading on Wednesdays, I’m going to keep The Sunday Salon to just what I’m reading on Sundays. This Sunday, I read the first 54 pages of Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas and am already looking forward to reading more. It has been weeks — maybe even months — since I have read a novel and been able to establish a relationship with the characters so quickly. I have read a lot of great fiction lately (Coetzee’s Disgrace, McCarthy’s The Road, Ford’s The Good Soldier, Bolano’s The Savage Detectives), but I haven’t truly connected with a character since Patchett’s Run, which I read in January.
The initial premise of Man Gone Down involves a 34 year old African American writer, married to a white woman, with three children under the age of 7, trying to finish and publish a novel in order to support his family. The true strength of the novel (so far) is Thomas’s stream-of-consciousness reporting of how race permeates his identity, as a husband, as a father, as a man. He attended upper-crust private schools outside Boston, as well as Harvard, and has confronted issues of race his entire life. The narrative shifts from the past to the present — and even to the future when he imagines what his children may experience – which may seem a little disorienting at first, but it is easy to navigate the shifts, mostly because I was able to trust Thomas from the very beginning.
Here is an excerpt (the first 10 sentences):
“I know I’m not doing well. I have an emotional relationship with a fish — Thomas Strawberry. My oldest son, C, named him, and that name was given weight becuase a six-year-old voiced it as though he’d had an epiphany: ‘He looks like a strawberry.’ The three adults in the room had nodded in agreement.
‘I only gave you one,’ his godfather, Jack, the marine biologist, told him. ‘If you have more than one, they kill each other.‘ Jack laughed. He doesn’t have kids. He doesn’t know that one’s not supposed to speak of death in front of them and cackle. One speaks of death in hushed, sober tones — the way one speacks of alcoholism, race, or secret bubble gum a younger sibling can’t have.”
I should probably mention that the narrator is a recovering alcoholic, which may become important soon… We’ll see! Happy Reading!
Welcome to the Salon! We have such a great group of readers and bloggers here…thanks for sharing your latest read…it looks good. I’ve also just read Disgrace and The Road – great books!
Thanks, Wendy! I’m really enjoying sharing part of a Sunday with like-minded readers! I love the picture of the pup on your site, too. Is that Caribou?
Kristen – So glad to see another new member join in. This is my second official Sunday and it’s been a real treat.
Anyway, it’s nice to meet you and I look forward to reading more about you on Sundays.
Sounds like a great book. Thanks for sharing!
Welcome to the Salon. This is the third or fourth time that “man Gone Down’ has appeared on my radar, so I must keep a look out for it. Patchett’s ‘Run’ is already high up on my tbr pile. I loved ‘Bel Canto’.
Thank you, Ann! I really enjoyed the sense of community of the Salon… It’s nice to find other readers and share recommendations, too. I also loved Bel Canto!
Thanks, J.! It’s nice to know I’m not the only newby
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