About Me

Ithaca, New York
MWF, now officially 42, loves long walks on the beach and laughing with friends ... oh, wait. By day, I'm a mid-level university administrator reluctant to be more specific on a public forum. Nights and weekends, though, I'm a homebody with strong nerdist leanings. I'm never happier than when I'm chatting around the fire, playing board games, cooking up some pasta, and/or road-tripping with my family and friends. I studied psychology and then labor economics in school, and I work in higher education. From time to time I get smug, obsessive, or just plain boring about some combination of these topics, especially when inequality, parenting, or consumer culture are involved. You have been warned.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

#58: The Inhabited World

The Inhabited World, by David Long
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006)
 Summary:
"Evan Molloy -- a son, husband, and stepfather -- fatally shot himself but doesn"t know why. He is now stuck in a state of purgatory in the house in Washington State where he lived and died. Currently, a woman named Maureen Keniston lives there. She is in her late thirties and is trying to restart her life after breaking off a long affair with a married man. The novel moves back and forth between the story of Evan"s increasingly troubled life and Maureen"s efforts to emerge from her own purgatory. In watching Maureen's struggles and ultimate triumph, Evan comes to see his own life and death in a completely new way."

Opening Line:
"When he looks at his hand, he sees the hand he remembers -- ropy branching veins, a ridge of waxy skin on the inside of the wrist were he fumbled a glowing iron rod at his father's forge one afternoon in 1966."

My Take:
I've said it before, but meh. Very slow. Either I didn't get something at the end (perhaps I'd already gotten bored and wasn't paying sufficient attention) but it seemed as though nothing happened. Not one of my favorites.

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