humpty dumpty was pushed

Yesterday I managed to set my personal best (?) time for crossing the border.  3 hours 5 minutes.  As I was heading south the big sign over the freeway told me that the Pacific Crossing was only  a 90 minute wait.  So I headed for the Pacific Crossing.  I did not take the time to equate the electronic border crossing board over I-5 with the electronic ferry crossing board at my house.   The one at my house is never correct.  It says there is a 90 minute wait for the ferry with no cars in the line up.  It says there is a 90 minute wait when the cars are backed up past my house and in standing in front of the grocery store.  Anyway.

While I was waiting patiently in the border crossing line, ignoring the fact that I had to pee, I finished reading my current book.  After finishing the book I picked up Swamp Thing socks.  Now this is a totally easy pattern.  k5,p1, across the instep, then k through the sole, talk about mindless.   It turned out it was not mindless enough.  I kept screwing up and having to tink.  Why?  Because I could not stop thinking about the book I had just finished.  This is a good sign.  The  book?

Humpty Dumpty Was Pused by Marc Blatte.  This is a smallish book and a quick read.  It is a quick read because it is so good.  I am not sure what it was about the pre-release literature that made me request this book, but boy am I glad I did.  It had me at the first sentence.  “When Scholar showed up at the studio and threw ten G’s in cash down on the automated faders of the classic forty-eight channel Neve mixing board, Biz new there was no way out of the deal.”  I have sat in front of that Neve,  I remember the first time I saw a board that big, the memory puts a smile on my face.  But this book is not all geeky music business stuff.

The Music Industry plays a part, the desire to succeed is fierce.  The book is so much more.  The characters are deep and complex and wonderful.  They are rich and poor, newly immigrated and long suffering.  Well connected and well meaning, all at the same time.  The scene where Vooko drives to the Hamptons and finally finds the “real” America is so touching.  It drops you to your knees.  At that moment you realize not only life as the characters have lived it, but life as the rest of us view it.  Very powerful stuff.

This book deserves your time.  The slang will not get in your way and you will find as you read that the slang is important for the characters.  The look of the book is very Kindle.  Bright white pages and crisp font.  Give it a read.  Listen to what it says and how it says it.  SO satisfying.  Will it turn out to be my favorite book of 2009?  Maybe.

I mean really, I was in a car, by myself, waiting for an agent to allow me to enter my own country and I could not knit a simple pair of socks because I kept coming back to the book.  It’s worth your time.

Comments

[kate]

I will add it to my book list. Any book someone feels that passionately about deserves a look.