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(from) the edge
All I can think is...oh, Anderson.
I just finished. The first half of the book I read with the sun streaming in and my room getting hotter and my new U2 Best of 1990-2000 dvd playing on shuffle in the background (my dvd player sure loves to repeat the song/video it played two songs ago), and it felt like a "best of 'Reporter's Notebook' segments, with some new material mixed in, to make it worth buying for the fans. I got distracted a lot and the reading was slow. Yes, Anderson, I remember your Tsunami 'Reporter's Notebook', and I wasn't even watching 360 yet, so you guys must have aired it again at least once since I started watching in February. A lot of the vignettes are straight from segments.
I didn't start reading again until 11 or so, still distracted by tv and then roommate at 12:30 wanting me to help him carry up a box from IKEA. The book was getting into more uncharted territory and since it was still all hot and since there's a mosquito in my room, I holed myself up in the bathroom after Conan ended and read for maybe 45 min in there where it was cooler and lighter (but the bathtub edge didn't feel too good on the back). He was in Sarajevo again. The only time I felt really like crying so far (but didn't) was when he described the young people at the cafe, dressed like they were going out clubbing or whatever, waiting for their bullet to come. God. Actually, when I was reading earlier with the music on, Anderson first got to Sarajevo right after "Miss Sarajevo" came on on the shuffle. I wonder if he knows about that beauty pageant. I need to check out that documentary...I'm so ignorant. I have no idea what's going on there now...are things OK now? Could they host another Olympics this year, or are 21 year-olds still living in the present, resigned to their inevitable sudden deaths?
I laughed, somewhat inappropriately, at Anderson describing the drugstore clerk's reaction to his Rwanda pics. Come on, it was funny! If he was still in that mindset, it wouldn't have been, but since he's completely *not* like that now...I can laugh. I did feel kinda ridiculous laughing while sitting on my bathroom rug, reading at nearly three in the morning. Also, at smiling sadly at him noting the resemblance to his dad (pg. 131...and yes, I'm now using the book to help, shut up!).
In Katrina, it finally hit its stride with me, and after the first couple, all the interviews and 'Reporter's Notebook's I'd seen live (and several repeated as well) no longer felt slightly stale, but rather, important to sort of "go though" again. The doctors, the cops, etc. I was very amused by the Landrieu interview being fully present...I've heard and read that thing so many times (though not recently) I practically know it by heart. I thought he'd edited his false start about politicians slapping each other on the back, but it was there at the top of the next page. Hee. By the time he got to Miss Connie, it felt *right* somehow (the book, not Katrina!) and I could see it and hear his and her voices and intonation and everything. Her story struck me more when reading it just now than any time I saw it aired on CNN.
All the "searching for feeling" (pg 178) and being 'on the edge' stuff (can't find it...where we're all on the edge with a thin tie keeping us from letting go, or something...) :(
Dia de los Muertos made me lose it. How fitting, how perfect. I think![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
legionpossessed called it, back when he said he went to Oaxaca. I didn't think about it really at the time, other than to think it an odd way to vacation. But then, Anderson doesn't really do vacations. Genocide museum? He's really a sucker for pain. I think that Oaxaca was the saddest, best-written part of the book.
Oh, and his little disclaimer about being factual was mildly amusing. Yes, Anderson, we know you hate James Frey for lying. We know you're not lying. You wouldn't. But yeah, all these Oprah readers probably don't know you well enough to know that.
Anyway, bottom line: for Anderpeeps, slow at times because of familiarity but engaging and very good in the latter part. For non-Anderpeeps (oh, you'll get converted sooner or later!), you'll probably find it far more "fascinating", "mind-boggling", and "unbelievable"...oh wait, that's just me using too many Anderexpressions, which he DOESN'T do in the book! Fascinating. Yeah, you'll be engaged, and you might find his straightforward narrative slightly annoying/pretentious/SOMETHING at first, before you're accustomed to it, but he's just being himself. It's a good book.
Can't wait to get the audiobook. Right now, I feel kind of disgusted at wanting to hear it because of the Carter and Wyatt parts...it feels like too personal/intrusive to "make him tell me" about that. I still want to hear him swear though.
I just finished. The first half of the book I read with the sun streaming in and my room getting hotter and my new U2 Best of 1990-2000 dvd playing on shuffle in the background (my dvd player sure loves to repeat the song/video it played two songs ago), and it felt like a "best of 'Reporter's Notebook' segments, with some new material mixed in, to make it worth buying for the fans. I got distracted a lot and the reading was slow. Yes, Anderson, I remember your Tsunami 'Reporter's Notebook', and I wasn't even watching 360 yet, so you guys must have aired it again at least once since I started watching in February. A lot of the vignettes are straight from segments.
I didn't start reading again until 11 or so, still distracted by tv and then roommate at 12:30 wanting me to help him carry up a box from IKEA. The book was getting into more uncharted territory and since it was still all hot and since there's a mosquito in my room, I holed myself up in the bathroom after Conan ended and read for maybe 45 min in there where it was cooler and lighter (but the bathtub edge didn't feel too good on the back). He was in Sarajevo again. The only time I felt really like crying so far (but didn't) was when he described the young people at the cafe, dressed like they were going out clubbing or whatever, waiting for their bullet to come. God. Actually, when I was reading earlier with the music on, Anderson first got to Sarajevo right after "Miss Sarajevo" came on on the shuffle. I wonder if he knows about that beauty pageant. I need to check out that documentary...I'm so ignorant. I have no idea what's going on there now...are things OK now? Could they host another Olympics this year, or are 21 year-olds still living in the present, resigned to their inevitable sudden deaths?
I laughed, somewhat inappropriately, at Anderson describing the drugstore clerk's reaction to his Rwanda pics. Come on, it was funny! If he was still in that mindset, it wouldn't have been, but since he's completely *not* like that now...I can laugh. I did feel kinda ridiculous laughing while sitting on my bathroom rug, reading at nearly three in the morning. Also, at smiling sadly at him noting the resemblance to his dad (pg. 131...and yes, I'm now using the book to help, shut up!).
In Katrina, it finally hit its stride with me, and after the first couple, all the interviews and 'Reporter's Notebook's I'd seen live (and several repeated as well) no longer felt slightly stale, but rather, important to sort of "go though" again. The doctors, the cops, etc. I was very amused by the Landrieu interview being fully present...I've heard and read that thing so many times (though not recently) I practically know it by heart. I thought he'd edited his false start about politicians slapping each other on the back, but it was there at the top of the next page. Hee. By the time he got to Miss Connie, it felt *right* somehow (the book, not Katrina!) and I could see it and hear his and her voices and intonation and everything. Her story struck me more when reading it just now than any time I saw it aired on CNN.
All the "searching for feeling" (pg 178) and being 'on the edge' stuff (can't find it...where we're all on the edge with a thin tie keeping us from letting go, or something...) :(
Dia de los Muertos made me lose it. How fitting, how perfect. I think
legionpossessed called it, back when he said he went to Oaxaca. I didn't think about it really at the time, other than to think it an odd way to vacation. But then, Anderson doesn't really do vacations. Genocide museum? He's really a sucker for pain. I think that Oaxaca was the saddest, best-written part of the book.Oh, and his little disclaimer about being factual was mildly amusing. Yes, Anderson, we know you hate James Frey for lying. We know you're not lying. You wouldn't. But yeah, all these Oprah readers probably don't know you well enough to know that.
Anyway, bottom line: for Anderpeeps, slow at times because of familiarity but engaging and very good in the latter part. For non-Anderpeeps (oh, you'll get converted sooner or later!), you'll probably find it far more "fascinating", "mind-boggling", and "unbelievable"...oh wait, that's just me using too many Anderexpressions, which he DOESN'T do in the book! Fascinating. Yeah, you'll be engaged, and you might find his straightforward narrative slightly annoying/pretentious/SOMETHING at first, before you're accustomed to it, but he's just being himself. It's a good book.
Can't wait to get the audiobook. Right now, I feel kind of disgusted at wanting to hear it because of the Carter and Wyatt parts...it feels like too personal/intrusive to "make him tell me" about that. I still want to hear him swear though.
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If not, are you at least going to read the book?
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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