lit coma: Crossing to Safety (a review)

selfies in the computer lab

I spent the weekend in a kind of novel-reading coma. I was deeply offended that my copy of Crossing to Safety was two days late. So, rather than waiting til the plane ride to Wisconsin, as I had intended, I jumped into this thing like a chocoholic does into a See's store.

Aaaaaaagh this book is so good. There is my inarticulate, primal response. It just blindsides me with its ... language. Its imagery. Its believability. And its characters!

Charity Lang is not only one of my favorite characters in literature, she is perhaps the one I most relate to. Some may think that this is not particularly flattering to myself; however, it is true. She is beautiful and bossy, intelligent and controlling, idealistic and yet power-hungry. I am all of these things. Her need to acknowledge what a fun time she is having, in order to have fun? Yep. Her attempts to shape her husband into what she wants him to be? Indeed. Even her childrearing theories are remarkably like my own (untested) ones.

Not only was reading this book an unparalleled pleasure for me; not only did I make a new friend in my new locale who I think will pretty much become Larry Morgan to my Charity (a close, platonic relationship between two married couples) due to commenting on his review on Goodreads; I also found evidence for my argument!

Anyone who reads, even one from the remote Southwest at the far end of an attenuated tradition, is to some extent a citizen of the world, and I had been a hungry reader all my life. p. 254

Ding. Ding. Ding. Thank you for writing my paper for me. ;)

Whichever work you have chosen to analyze, I highly recommend reading other works by the same author. Not only is it fun, it can help you understand the author a lot better.