book read

[flea]

How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff (2005). This is YA fiction set in a near-future or AU England, where a war occurs. It is narrated in first-person by Daisy, who is 15, and has gone to live with her cousins right before the war breaks out. I got it for Christmas. It's a very short read and the strong voice carried me right through; it wasn't until afterwards that I began to question some of the logic of the way the war unfolds. But I think in some ways the logic isn't the point; this isn't a thinky SF world-building novel, it's an emotional teenager novel. (As an aside, reviews will talk about incest wrt this book; the sex is between first cousins who had never met. This does not fit my definition of incest, though it may yours.) The logic was good for me, though, because this was an example of why I generally only read light fiction. Given that it's a war, many distressing things happen, and I have been haunted by some of them since I read this book a month ago. And while I can try to tell myself, "Logically, a war in England wouldn't play out like that," the fact is that right now on this planet wars ARE playing out like that, and it's terrible, and if I think about it too much I become unable to function.

And I have dreams of walking long distances in wartime with my children. Last night's featured Hecubus taking care of Casper (I think the Dillo and I had died) for 9 years, walking all the way from NC to California.

No, I am not going to read Cormac McCarthy.

Comments

[hecubot.livejournal.com]

I promise to take good care of her.

We might stop for ice cream in Indiana.

[lala-lisa.livejournal.com]

I just finished the Road last week and it was totally haunting. I haven't had any nightmares explicitly related to it but I fully expect to.

I had sworn off apopcolyptic fiction for a while but How I Live Now sounds really interesting to me.

[orthoepy.livejournal.com]

I thought I was the only one who obsessed over how far I could carry my child(ren) should something apocalyptic break out.

When LB was five (and weighed about forty lbs) I carried him for five blocks in a sling. It was post-party so I was in heels ... but it still made me think "what would we do if ..."

Now he can walk as far/fast as I can, so I don't worry so much anymore. But sheesh!

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

No, I am not going to read Cormac McCarthy

You and me both (neither?).

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Hey, I read that book a while back! I was a little weirded by the cousins hooking up, but I really enjoy post-apocalypse type fiction, so it was interesting.

I had a dream about a tsunami last night. I was in Seattle, and we had two hours warning that it was coming, and the people and streets were crazy, and I was trying to tell my friends (who were being fatalistic) that surely in two hours we could get like, eight miles inland, and wouldn't that be better?