Gotta Have It!

 

Jennifer Haigh's Faith is another prime example of why I thoroughly enjoy being a part of a book club because this is yet again a piece I would've never tackled. This is one of those tales that keeps you up into the late hours because you are thrust onto a roller coaster ride of emotions--one moment you utterly despise and loathe Father Breen for what the evidence presents to you as him being a predator of children. Then, in another instance, you find your heart bleeding for him... taking pity on this poor, wrongfully accused man of the cloth. The family dynamics throughout the work are also extremely interesting with the sibling to sibling relationship versus the parent to child one. I found myself having empathy for the father, who drank himself into oblivion... The mother and Mike's wife were definitely people I would not socialize with, and even Mike came across a bit too self-righteous for me just because he was a "man's" man or a "lady's" man. Did that justify his extramarital affairs that were all in the name of "helping" his older brother? The narrator, Sheila, is an excellent detective, and would definitely make Jessica Fletcher proud! (Yes, I just dropped an Angela Lansbury reference!) 

One of my dear friends, and former co-workers used to live in Boston; thus, hearing her debunk and clarify certain instances, such as the storm to all the counts of child abuse that went unaccounted is interesting. Again, the story within the story. 

The writer also made Massachusetts feel like a character in and of itself throughout--I truly felt transported to that amazing state, as well as taking a "long pull" on a beer. 

6/100

Different Eyes, Still Golden

 

"I've been thinking about... that poem, that guy [Robert Frost] that wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be" (Hinton 178).

~S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders

Its always interesting to revisit the classics of one's own adolescence, and S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders is no exception. In truth, I only fake-read this piece when presented to me in middle school, which had to have been seventh grade. I remember not being able to stand the class I was in, nor the individuals in it. Unlike previous room set-ups, each student was mixed up and placed at a table. This was to encourage a stronger group dynamic, but I still can't shake the image of one of the larger girls bullying me, and forcing her ring into my skin to leave the jewelries indentation on my flesh. I too called the Socs the "socks." Reading really didn't interest me at the time because I was too involved in my own day-dream-like haze just to escape the bondage of my entitlement via F.A.P.E. (Free Appropriate Public Education). I am happy to report that yes, I finally read it, and yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Naturally, any mention of Darry evoked images of the great, late Patrick Swayze from the film... the sad reality of the story is that in the nearly forty-five years since its publication nothing has really changed. Obviously, we don't call ourselves "Greasers" and/or "Socs," but class warfare definitely still exists. Probably more on a minority based skill, but its still here. What also hasn't changed, and we are seeing this a lot with LGBT youth who are continuously being bullied, is that kids are throwing their lives away because they feel worthless and not validated. One of the reasons I love Oprah so much is because she recognizes this, and always says, "You matter." I wish I was there to tell both Dally and Johnny this because they both were a lot alike. They were both fearful, lost, scared, and terribly tragic. Johnny's sacrifice in the end was not an act of redemption, or an eye-for-an-eye... Johnny was protecting Ponyboy, and had nothing to prove. Though I do not agree with killing or violence, I do believe that defense is compulsory and that's exactly what Johnny was executing. 

I think the most amazing part about this tale is the fact that Hinton was still in high school when she wrote it, and her reverence for Frost feels commonplace since she would've been in school when he passed in '63. The story within the story is always the most unique! Its also interesting to go from first reading this story with the eyes of a seventh grader, and now re-reading it with the eyes of an almost-thirty-year-old man. Different eyes, but still golden. 

5/100

Women Food and God... and sometimes Men!

 

"I don't believe in inner children. I do believe that there are frozen places in ourselves--undigested pockets of pain--that need to be recognized and welcomed, so that we can contact that which has never  been hurt or wounded or hungry" (Roth 7-8).

~Geneen Roth, Women Food and God

Another long, over-due review... this is becoming the story of my life, and I am not even employed. Hopefully that will soon change. 

I, like everyone else in America, DVR'd the Oprah episode that declared you would never have to diet again, etc. thanks to the wisdom of Geneen Roth's bestseller. The quote above is the one that lingered with me the most throughout the book, which was part self-help, but also something more... self-discovery. When you embark on a journey within, for whatever reason and mine just happens to be food, you realize that you are a lot like an onion and until your time as the person you are on this planet has ceased, you will continuously be peeling back the layers. Tennie McCarthy is infamous for uttering, "Trust the process," and that's exactly what this piece is--another part of the process. I found the cat story very entertaining, in which she realized you cannot please everyone and bad things inevitably happen. I also loved how she pointed out that sometimes the meditation doesn't help, as well as trying not to eat on top of your pain, which is something I am extremely guilty of. She also made light of the pain her parents had brought her. By the end, I didn't feel like I was being counseled by some high-being-know-it-all-food-guru, but what I did feel like was that I was receiving honest, open information from a friend. 

4/100