June 2015 | Kate's Point of View

Month: June 2015

When All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr won a Pulitzer just a few days after I finished reading it and telling everyone how great it was, I felt like such a smarty pants. As if it wasn’t a total coincidence.

Then I started thinking, “These Pulitzer Awards… Maybe they’re on to something. Those could be some good books to read.” And that is how I went on a beach vacation with a bunch of books that were slightly higher brow than my normal beach reads. (I also threw in some Young Adult and Science Fiction books.)

My takeaway? Some of the books who have won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction are excellent. Some maybe more of an acquired taste?

I still present All the Light We Cannot See as one of the better books I’ve read in a long time. I won’t say too much about it because it’s still new and I don’t want to give spoilers. But, the writing is beautiful and some of the images Doerr presents to detail the relationship between a father and his daughter are just wonderful.

Monday night I finished The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson. Also excellent! I’ve not read much about North Korea and this was a doozy.

Published in 2012, The Orphan Master’s Son focuses on Jun Do. Most of his childhood was spent in an orphanage and from there he moves on to a tunnel expert who can fight in the dark, a kidnapper, a radio operator, a hero and then a foreign dignitary. Even when he does horrible things, it’s hard not to feel sympathy towards Jun Do, who is just trying to do his best and survive.

Johnson does a masterful job of creating a feeling about North Korea through dialogue and character experiences that speaks volumes more than descriptions ever could. At one point in the novel, which I was reading at the gym, I was visibly gagging at some of the stuff Jun Do was doing. And while that scene, which I will spare sharing with you, was gross, it helped create an image for me of North Korea.

That’s what good writing is all about, right?

Some other Pulitzer Winners I’ve checked out recently include Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout, Tinkers by Paul Harding and A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan.

If you want to try the same sourcing for new (to you) books to read, check out the list of past Pulitzer winners.

Revisiting the Place of My Teens

By Kate

On June 23, 2015

In uncategorized

When I was younger I worked at amusement park. (More on that here.) For five seasons I worked the rides. That time, and specifically that place, hold a special place in my heart. The jobs was dumb but the experiences and friendships shaped me.

When I finally left there in search of summer jobs that paid more than minimum wage, I left the park for good. That was in 2001 and I had no intention of going back.

Until my employer forced my hand.

We’re having a work retreat at that same amusement park in a few weeks. It’s a fun place for a meeting and there are easy opportunities for fun and team-building. But. That place.

I knew I had to go back on my own before the work event. With Wonder Boy at my side, I set out down Memory Lane last Friday.

And it was terrible.

Ownership of the park has changed hands so the children’s rides are no longer Hannah-Barbera-themed. My favorite ride to work is gone. My favorite ride to watch – miniature handcars on a miniature railroad track – is gone. The no longer have the same two Raffi albums on repeat so I couldn’t hear my favorite song from my park days over the loudspeaker.

Most of all, I was struck by just how small the park felt. It’s so, so much smaller than I remembered.

While my general reaction to the outing was not great, there were nice parts. I had forgotten about some rides. And seeing them brought back such odd memories. Swings: standing in the rain talking to someone working the bumper cars. Bumper cars: starting the ride when a squirrel was on the electricity-laden roof and watching sparks fly as it tried to race away. Petting zoo: there used to be a Gong Show performed on that stage.

After walking through the children’s area and getting Wonder Boy some Smurf Ice Cream (no longer named that but definitely still the same thing), we headed out to adult rides. And there we confirmed that Wonder Boy and I were made for each other. Two giant chickens.

At one point we were on the swings – a pretty tame ride – and he asked me, “Is this more thrilling than you anticipated?” He sounded like a chicken from 1850. But since I was also white-knuckling it, all I could do was nod. We rode all of the dizzy rides and looked at every roller coaster (road none).

When we road the train, then felt like home. My last two years at the park I was a train conductor, crossing guard and station worker for that ride. The speech has changed and the on-ride music seems louder, but otherwise it was familiar.

Thanks goodness something felt the same. It was weird visiting a place I associate with my teens and at the same time be forced to recognize how far away those times are.