My Education
by Susan Choi, 2013.
It sounded interesting: a "torrid" love affair. The opening chapter made me realize it would be even more relevant: it's set in 1992, as a student is beginning graduate school. The last section was also relevant: 2007, young motherhood.
In between was a novel with at least one twist that caught me off guard early on. And the "education" certainly revolves around love & relationships, not poetry & writing (which the graduate student is studying). The end of the novel was almost perfect: it left you on a note of finality, but didn't explain 100% of what the future would hold--you could leave that up to your own interpretation & imagination.
There was a line early on about parenthood that really rang true to me: "It's overwhelming, of course. The brand-new and unprecedented being confirming one's mortality and one's immortality at the same time. Of course when they're so wee and helpless you can spend all your time having existential crises of one kind or another. Once they start to talk to you and show their personalities you forget all about it." (page 26)
Later on there was a quote that reminded me of a vet friend: "A farmer's work is never done. . . . It's just neglected at times so the farmer can eat, sleep, and check his Facebook." (page 290)
In between there was a lot of insightful writing. Occasionally the sentence phrasing was tricky enough for me that I'd have to read it two or three times to get it, but in general I really liked her style.
It sounded interesting: a "torrid" love affair. The opening chapter made me realize it would be even more relevant: it's set in 1992, as a student is beginning graduate school. The last section was also relevant: 2007, young motherhood.
In between was a novel with at least one twist that caught me off guard early on. And the "education" certainly revolves around love & relationships, not poetry & writing (which the graduate student is studying). The end of the novel was almost perfect: it left you on a note of finality, but didn't explain 100% of what the future would hold--you could leave that up to your own interpretation & imagination.
There was a line early on about parenthood that really rang true to me: "It's overwhelming, of course. The brand-new and unprecedented being confirming one's mortality and one's immortality at the same time. Of course when they're so wee and helpless you can spend all your time having existential crises of one kind or another. Once they start to talk to you and show their personalities you forget all about it." (page 26)
Later on there was a quote that reminded me of a vet friend: "A farmer's work is never done. . . . It's just neglected at times so the farmer can eat, sleep, and check his Facebook." (page 290)
In between there was a lot of insightful writing. Occasionally the sentence phrasing was tricky enough for me that I'd have to read it two or three times to get it, but in general I really liked her style.