Summer Reading Spectacular #11

Alright, it's time to catch up. I've got three things to document, so I'll do each quickly and briefly.

A few days ago I finished reading Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. The story behind my choice to read it is this: Several years ago I was approached to play the part of Lucky in Waiting for Godot, but unfortunately circumstances being what they were (surgery, to be specific), I couldn't make the commitment. The director went off and cast someone else and I never was able to even see it. So now, I've finally read it.

Lucky would have been an interesting challenge to play. He says nary a word for the bulk of the play, save for one three-page monologue. The thing is, it's a huge nonsensical monologue (did I mention that the play falls into the realm of Theatre of the Absurd?) with no punctuation and which rambles in loose cycles through themes and images. Maybe it's good that I couldn't commit, because memorizing that thing must be a killer!

In the end, I enjoyed the reading and would like to see a good prodution of it some day. I say good production because in reading it, it's obvious how wrong it could go without a strong director and cast. It could go off the tracks so easily, but could also be a fascinating bit of theatre, too.

Next, I finished reading Fragile Things. It's a collection of "short fictions and wonders" by Neil Gaiman. As a Neil Gaiman fan (everyone should read Neverwhere), I always enjoy his quirky, sometimes macabre short stories, and just as much enjoy reading his brief author's comments for each in the introduction. Among my favourites from this collection are "The Flints of Memory Lane", "Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulso, Oklahoma, and Louisville, Kentucky", "How to Talk to Girls at Parties", and "The Monarch of the Glen" (which is a short follow-up/companion to his novel American Gods.)

Finally, yesterday I wrapped up a short children's novel, What Jamie Saw, by Carolyn Coman.

When Jamie saw him throw the baby, saw Van throw the little baby, saw Van throw his little sister Nin, when Jamie saw Van throw his little sister Nin, then they moved.

From there, the story, simple and effective in both voice and plot, follows Jamie and his less-than-perfect mother try to cope with uncertainty and fear as they try to settle into a new life in a trailer out on their own with his baby sister in tow. Coman earned a Newbery Honor for What Jamie Sawin 1996.