Then again, I can still picture the main character in my mind – Swede Levov – the setting, the emotion, the craziness that is his mind in this book. So something must have stuck. And I do understand why it received critical acclaim. The entire book centers around the very personal impact the turmoil of the 1960s had on him.
What stuck the most for me was that Swede Levov's life – as imagined by another character at the start of the book – was not the perfect life most people on the outside believed. He had always been viewed as perfect, with a perfect wife (a former Miss New Jersey, if I'm remembering correctly) and a perfect job (he ran the family business). He was Mr. Nice Guy. But, of course, if this were really the case, there wouldn't be a book.
Turns out, his only daughter got swept up into the 60s, blew up a Post Office and killed a local doctor in misguided retaliation for the war, and disappeared shortly thereafter only to return near the end of the book a stick-thin mess who had learned in the movement how to make bombs and had killed even more people. I had a hard time connecting with that part of the book. But what did make me think was the fact that here was this guy who really had everything he had ever wanted – and his daughter ended up a fugitive. For much of the book, he wonders what he did to cause his daughter to do this.
It's hopeless, of course. But it made me wonder about how difficult it must be to be a parent and raise your kids, hoping that you've done enough. In the end, your child is his own person, and you are not his only influence. That must be tough.
On that note, I'd recommend this book, but only if you're in the mood for something heavy. And since it's summer, that's probably not the case, so I'd wait until you get snowed in this coming winter to get started. It's certainly not beach reading.
I've moved on to another on the list, The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow, and so far, so good. It's great to have time to read again.
No comments:
Post a Comment