holiday reading - so far so good

Although I haven't read all that much this holiday, what I have read is excellent. Finished Ann Patchett's The Patron Saint of Liars before Christmas, and I am still thinking about that novel's ending. I don't want to give anything away, but the main character Rose is as infuriating as she is intriguing. She's a deeply flawed character but one who is also burdened by the conventional expectations for women living in the 1960s. For this reason even when she is absolutely exasperating she still draws the reader's sympathy. The ending has made me think of a conversation I had with Patchett about the themes she explores in her work. She agreed that she seems to return to the idea of finding home by another way. I hadn't finished The Patron Saint of Liars when I asked her about this, but now I see how true this is for the main character Rose. "Another way" is the only way for her.

The book I am MOST excited about is, coincidentally, also about finding home by another way. I am really into memoirs at the moment, and this is no ordinary memoir. See You in a Hundred Years: Four Seasons in Forgotten America is Vanderbilt alum Logan Ward's story of how he, his wife, and their two-year-old son left a successful albeit soulless existence in New York City and settled on a farm outside of Staunton, Virginia. In doing so they also deliberately left behind the twenty-first century, foregoing all amenities and necessities that would have been invented after the year 1900. I loved this book for several reasons, but primarily because Logan is an honest and self-deprecating narrator. This year on the farm is one of utter humility. He is spooked by the horse on which he is entirely dependent for transportation; he is equally at the mercy of the rain that refuses to fall for several months; and he admits that it is difficult and ultimately necessary to ask for help from neighbors who must think their project is slightly bizarre. I would wager that it would be a page-turner for anyone familiar with the New York life that he abandons or the area of the country in which he chooses to settle.

Oh my goodness I just realized I accidentally skipped two entire chapters! Off to read more of the good stuff. Ironies abound in the Wards' project, but so do tiny miracles. Absolutely worth reading, and fun reading, too.

Here's a link to Logan Ward's home page so that you can read an excerpt and buy the book: See You in a Hundred Years.