Potpourri
Born in 1977, Julie Buxbaum earned a law degree from Harvard and then became a successful author. Her first two novels were for adults, the next five for kids. Her work has been translated into 25 languages. I just finished her debut, The Opposite of Love, published in 2008. It’s a first-person account of a 29-year-old NYC lawyer experiencing emotional turmoil, the root of which goes back to when she was 14, the death of her mom from cancer. Her relationship with her politician dad is reserved. These unresolved issues prod her into breaking up with her boyfriend, a doctor, who she senses is about to propose. Soon her beloved grandad, her real parent, begins to suffer cognitive difficulties. Although she is good at her job, she is in it only for the money and prestige of working for a top firm. She is troubled that she is not making the world a better place, and the feeling is amplified when she is assigned to a case about an Arkansas company that has been pouring chemicals into a river, possibly poisoning the people of a small town, where the cancer rate is way above the national average. I feared the narrative would descend into a one-dimensional good vs evil tale similar to the only John Grisham novel I’ve read, whose title escapes me. Fortunately, it doesn’t go that way. In fact, her interview with the husband of a woman who has died is thoroughly professional, even though her sentiments are with the townsfolk, and contains more balance in the page or so devoted to it than the entire Grisham book. The story is grounded, always plausible, never veers from real life, heart always in the right place. So why wasn’t I enthralled? My guess is that after writing about similar existential angst my entire adult life it has become tiresome, tedious. The prose and dialogue are solid. The characters are interesting. Here’s the protagonist’s explanation of the title: “… The opposite of love isn’t hate; it isn’t even indifference. It’s fucking disembowelment. Hari-kiri. Taking a huge shovel and digging out your own heart, and your intestines, and leaving nothing. Nothing of yourself to give, nothing, even, to take away. Nothing but a quiet pulse…” Unfortunately, there is a prologue. Any reader will see where the narrative is headed, diminishing the drama. 93 readers at Amazon have rated The Opposite…, forging to a consensus of 4.2 on scale of five. I’ll go with three. I believe it would appeal far more to women than men. Here’s the author:
I ran across a new term in an article about a sociopath/psychopath by Tamar Lapin at nypost.com: Incel — involuntary celibate.
Interesting, amusing tidbit from Miranda Devine’s NYP op-ed piece lampooning Quid Pro Joe’s first six months in office: “Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s mom Blanca Ocasio-Cortez was forced to leave the Big Apple and move to Florida to escape the sky-high property taxes.”
I wish these headlines from foxnews.com or the fact that hardly anyone attended the president’s powwow had real meaning: “CNN’s Biden town hall flops, finishes behind Fox News, MSNBC with only 1.5 million viewers.” “Fox News beat CNN by a staggering 83 percent during the Biden town hall.” It doesn’t change anything or derail the socialist express.
Also from FN: “US Women’s team takes knee during anthem, promptly loses 3–0.”
It was one of those fluke days where the floating book shop resembled a real business. It started as I was setting up the display. A couple bought three large tomes by Einstein in Russian and three kids books for their son. Later, a woman purchased Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. Then it was quiet for a while until a woman went to town on the Russian inventory, taking home more than ten, and she was followed by a woman who selected two more. And then a gentleman wiped out half the children’s section, choosing more than 20 titles. Then Arthur topped the session off by buying The First Lady by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois, and Jack and Jill by Patterson solo.
My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE
FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts
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