My Summer Reading List: Update #1

I have read, so far, Empire Falls by Richard Russo as well as just finishing The Last Noel by one of my favorite novelists, Michael Malone. I am trying my best not to be obsessive about setting goals, etc. around getting a certain number of books read by the end of leave. That seems, somehow, to be antithetical to "relaxation." I gotta say that I really enjoyed Empire Falls...it reminded me of so many of the small towns where I have served, and which are in my district right now, and it simply was a beautifully and honestly told story of family and the important things in life. And there is a profundity in Russo's telling that makes the story simply transparent with grace. I especially enjoyed the character of Tick, Miles's, the protagonist's bright teen age daughter, who has the courage to be herself, most of the time. I share here an excerpt late in the book--Tick has been in conflict with her high school art teacher, Mrs. Roderigue who doesn't really have a creative bone in her body and who has a fascination with a local artist who has a TV show on the weekends where he completes a new painting during every show. Tick's teacher likes the tidiness and task-oriented nature of this guy, and Tick thinks her teacher has a real crush on him too. Anyway, at this point in the book, Tick and her fellow students have been given the assignment of painting a still-life of a bouquet the teacher has brought in:

What Tick wonders now is whether she'll be accused of doing a smart-aleck painting. At the center of the bouquet is a monstrous peony, probably purchased on sale at the supermarket. By Tuesday its curling petals have begun to collect at the bottom of the vase, infusing the room with the faint but unmistakably sweet odor of corruption and imminent death. Tick knows that what Mrs. Roderigue intended is for her students to paint the peony as it had appeared on Monday when it was still beautiful, at least to her way of thinking. In Tick's opinion there was something extravagantly excessive about the peony from the start, as if God had intended to suggest with this particular bloom that you could have too much of a good thing. The swiftness with which the fallen petals began to stink drove the point home in case anybody missed it. As a rule, Tick leans toward believing that there is no God, but she isn't so sure at times like this, when pockets of meaning emerge so clearly that they feel like divine communication. She realizes it's entirely possible that this is simply Tick communicating with Tick, but she is willing, largely in deference to her father, who believes in God and wishes she did too, to keep an open mind.
Her apprehension about the watercolor has to do with her decision to depict not the peony's beauty but rather its rancid decay. The other smart-alecky thing is that she's painting the shapes of her fellow students, the ones who are facing her as they paint the flowers, into the background. While this hasn't been strictly prohibited, Tick's pretty sure Mrs. Roderique hasn't intended for anyone to see beyond the flowers themselves. (p. 385)



The Last Noel was a fairly quick read, that I couldn't put down. If you have a romantic bone in your body, I would advise that you have some Kleenex near by 'cause you are going to need them by the end.