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Thread: UB5 Book Club Thread - Book # 1 - The Sympathizer

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  1. #1
    Quote Originally Posted by SeattleUte View Post
    Here is a sentence that is emblematic of what I find so unpleasant about this book: "I was in close quarters with some representative specimens of the most dangerous creature in the history of the world, the white man in a suit." It isn't the politics. The statement may even contain much truth. This is supposed to be funny, and it's just not. I actually like funny novels that tease me and test my convictions--give me a guilty pleasure. See the French novelist Michel Houellebecq's novels; his views are to a large extent aligned with Donald Trump's but the stories do not anticipate greatness, they are nihilistic. I think Trump is loathsome and I am not nihilistic, but I love Houellebecq' novels. There needs to be artistry, originality, wit, artfully rendered context. The problem I'm having with this novel is the artistry. Lacking that, the tired, dogmatic, nihilistic political theme is not provocative, it's just annoying.
    I got torn between this book and "Lincoln In The Bardo", which I just finished. Funny and beautiful book. Basically flipped a coin. I'll be interested in your thoughts.

    I'm hoping that the Ox milking scene in the orphan master wasn't the turning point in that book for you. I had a similar experience with that book. Struggled through it and then the "escape" began and I absolutely loved it.

  2. #2
    Sam the Sheepdog LA Ute's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by OrangeUte View Post
    I'm hoping that the Ox milking scene in the orphan master wasn't the turning point in that book for you. I had a similar experience with that book. Struggled through it and then the "escape" began and I absolutely loved it.
    I loved that one too.

    "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
    --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

    "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
    --Yeats

    “True, we [lawyers] build no bridges. We raise no towers. We construct no engines. We paint no pictures - unless as amateurs for our own principal amusement. There is little of all that we do which the eye of man can see. But we smooth out difficulties; we relieve stress; we correct mistakes; we take up other men's burdens and by our efforts we make possible the peaceful life of men in a peaceful state.”

    --John W. Davis, founder of Davis Polk & Wardwell

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by OrangeUte View Post
    I got torn between this book and "Lincoln In The Bardo", which I just finished. Funny and beautiful book. Basically flipped a coin. I'll be interested in your thoughts.

    I'm hoping that the Ox milking scene in the orphan master wasn't the turning point in that book for you. I had a similar experience with that book. Struggled through it and then the "escape" began and I absolutely loved it.
    Yes, the escape was really when the book pivoted; such a rush when he emerged from that mine with the new identity and then the trip "home"! But my favorite scene--probably in retrospect--may have been the scene in Texas. It was very funny but also surprisingly affectionate and compassionate toward a bunch of goofy red state Americans. It was an amazing piece of artistry.
    One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike -- and yet it is the most precious thing we have.

    --Albert Einstein

    The fact that life evolved out of nearly nothing, some 10 billion years after the universe evolved out of literally nothing, is a fact so staggering that I would be mad to attempt words to do it justice.

    --Richard Dawkins

    Be kind to all, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.

    --Philo

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