"The Sun Also Rises" is my favorite book. I usually hesitate to name a favorite so explicitly, usually opting instead to name my Top 5 (Top 5 movies, songs, banana-based desserts, what have you). But life is short, I'm told, so I'll come right out and own my love of "The Sun Also Rises". It's my favorite.
Because of this fact, writing a short blog on the book is a bit like writing a short blog entry about a good friend; there's no way to convey the nuances of the relationship or to make someone else understand why such things are important. However, having re-read the book just recently for the zillionth time, I felt compelled to jot down a few ideas.
First of all, the descriptions of Paris, Pamplona, and the Spanish countryside are priceless. The descriptions are not florid or ornate, but lean and basic. The sensation of 'being there' is much stronger because of this. From the nightly walks around Paris from the point of view of a jaded but content expat to the sights and smells of the woods on a fishing trip on the Irati, the book is a mini-vacation, a get-away for the mind.
Other parts of the book are like a good, melancholic party. There is much drinking and laughter, some fighting, some hurt feelings, followed immediately by more drinking and laughter. Just reading some of the fiesta scenes is enough to give you a pleasant hangover.
Finally, of course, are the characters. The damaged, conflicting characters. They're wonderful, like awful friends whom you just can't stay away from. I try to figure them all out with each read, and I come up with different answers every time.
There's more, but it's mine and I won't share it. I encourage you to giveA the book a read (or a second reading) and see what you take away from it!
A Fourth Question
This question doesn't come from "The Big Book of Questions" but from a book I saw at Barnes & Noble called "My Last Supper". The book asks 50 great chefs the following questions:
1. What would you choose as your last meal?
2. Where would you choose to eat it?
Because of this fact, writing a short blog on the book is a bit like writing a short blog entry about a good friend; there's no way to convey the nuances of the relationship or to make someone else understand why such things are important. However, having re-read the book just recently for the zillionth time, I felt compelled to jot down a few ideas.
First of all, the descriptions of Paris, Pamplona, and the Spanish countryside are priceless. The descriptions are not florid or ornate, but lean and basic. The sensation of 'being there' is much stronger because of this. From the nightly walks around Paris from the point of view of a jaded but content expat to the sights and smells of the woods on a fishing trip on the Irati, the book is a mini-vacation, a get-away for the mind.
Other parts of the book are like a good, melancholic party. There is much drinking and laughter, some fighting, some hurt feelings, followed immediately by more drinking and laughter. Just reading some of the fiesta scenes is enough to give you a pleasant hangover.
Finally, of course, are the characters. The damaged, conflicting characters. They're wonderful, like awful friends whom you just can't stay away from. I try to figure them all out with each read, and I come up with different answers every time.
There's more, but it's mine and I won't share it. I encourage you to giveA the book a read (or a second reading) and see what you take away from it!
A Fourth Question
This question doesn't come from "The Big Book of Questions" but from a book I saw at Barnes & Noble called "My Last Supper". The book asks 50 great chefs the following questions:
1. What would you choose as your last meal?
2. Where would you choose to eat it?
3. With whom?
I am constantly revising and reconsidering my answers to these questions, and often do so when I'm bored or killing time. Today I thought I would eat roast suckling pig outside, on a terrace over a Spanish or Italian vineyard. There'd be several bottles of wine and dessert ... dessert would be a warm berry cobbler a la mode. I'd dine alone or with all of my siblings. The answers to the first two questions vary from day to day, and the third answer never changes. This is one of my favorite questions, so I'd love to hear everyone else's answers!
PS- Okay, I know it's been on your mind, so here they are:
1. Banana Cream Pie
2. Bananas Foster
3. Toasted Banana Bread w/ Butter
4. Chocolate-covered Bananas
5. Banana Pudding (sliced bananas are a must!)
7 comments:
Are you sure you don't want to become a chef?
Now I want to read The Sun Also Rises again. I love, love, love this book as well. It has been a long time since I last read it.
Have you ever read Angle of Repose? That is another book that really stays with you.
Bongo Bash is the current drink in my hand...and it's made with bananas (and ice cream, rum, coffee liqueur, and er...other yummy things including whipped cream); the point of course is that it is made with banana. Fate it seems to read your post while consuming a banana-based drink on the beach. Gotta love wi-fi.
Trisha,
You are in Florida, right? Cory insisted that you are on a cruise. You sure are missing out at inservice...lol!!! Think of us and have one of those banana things for all of us!
Hmmm.
I need time to consider this most penetrating of questions. I'll be back. But I wanted you to know that it is on my mind.
This question has been brewing in me. I had trouble with it until I realized that the answers to 1 & 2 are made easier by realizing that they must be something that I have already experienced. I cannot pick a place I've never been or a food I've never tried to be my last.
So...
1. Thick cheeseburger w/ provolone, just a bit of ketchup, spinach leaves on a whole wheat bun. It would be joined with some old-fashioned, baked fries...with much salt. Mugs of beer would be generous.
I'm not classy, so my last meal shouldn't be.
2. A big table at sunset on an open, Appalacian hillside. It has just the right balance of grass, open-space, and counter. I would want to be in the U.S.
3. Still thinking....very tough.
It's fun, isn't it?
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