Quote du Jour: So, you think you can write?

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The stars were shining like distant balls of gas, and you could see the janitors sitting on the roof of the library, sharing a cigarette. It was all very peaceful and beautiful with the janitors talking in Spanish and the imported words floating on top of our heads.

XXXX~ Music Through the Floor, "Essay #3: Leda and the Swan" - Eric Puchner
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Review: Model Home by Eric Puchner

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What follows is my impressionistic review of the source of yesterday's Quote du Jour:

We know Model Home to be authentic and true because it prominently features an aged dog, a beloved mutt, who sings to rocks. This we recognize as exactly the type of amazing creature one actually encounters in this wonderful world.

In this novel, Murphy’s Law is in full effect: if it can go horribly wrong, it almost immediately does so. The portraits of the characters—each of the survivors—are so authentically drawn that one is compelled to love each of them, while perhaps liking none of them. This also rings true. It rings true, at least, as the potential saving grace of our own flawed lives—as that toward which we should be constantly aspiring.

Another such message is delivered by our understanding of the character Kenny, who is imagined as a “professional Jesus impersonator.” His is the vocation which we should all be setting our sights upon.

In Model Home we have a narrative which, if it cannot be said to remain at all times within the boundaries of probability, nonetheless never strays far from God’s own Truth. It is a valuable book, replete with lessons that we need to learn.

It is a book that encourages its readers, by showing how even the losers can help each other simply by going on with it; breathing in, and breathing out:

Curled inside the mailbox, sandwiched between the phone bill and a Sharper Image catalog, was an eleven-by-fourteen envelope. Warren opened the envelope and pulled out a glossy photograph of Jesus Christ in a hooded robe, clutching a shepherd’s staff and staring majestically into the distance, presumably at His flock. It took Warren a second to recognize the face. At the bottom, just above Christ’s bold and splashy signature, were the words Keep on keepin’ on. Warren laughed. He started to throw the picture in the trash can, but some unnegotiable force caused him to hold on to it.

Get it and read it. It couldn't hurt.
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Quote du Jour: From a Literary Gem

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Here is a quote from the best new novel I've read in a long, long time. Warren is a man in great distress. Kenny is a professional Jesus impersonator, and the brother of a woman with whom Warren has been having an extramarital affair. Warren's twelve-year old son, Jonas, has run away from home:

xx"Would you like to pray for your son?"
xx"I don't believe in God," Warren said.
xx"That's okay. I work for myself."
xxWarren looked at him. He seemed to be serious. Kenny knelt in front of him and laid a hand on Warren's head. His sunglasses reflected Warren's face, turning it moosey and distorted. Warren closed his eyes. He did not know how to ration his prayer. There were so many things he could ask forgiveness for: for loving Jonas least of his children; for giving up on life; for being here at all, in grease-stained khakis, at a strange woman's trailer. Once, as a boy, Warren had asked his mother if animals ever prayed to God; she'd told him that they didn't need to, that God heard them through their suffering."

I recommend the novel highly. I got turned on to it here.
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