/o\

liii. to have and have not, ernest hemingway
after the last relative disappointment of 'a farewell to arms' this was relatively pleasant to read, harry morgan is a hard-ass! wonder if dexter's dad was named after him, unlikely. my only quibble was the long irrelevant passage at about the 3/4 point about a side character i didn't care for.

liv. freedom, jonathan franzen
hmm. given the unsullied wall-to-wall positive reception i had relatively high hopes and pre-ordered (!!) this book. an unprecedented move for me. then just before i started reading the news came out that the UK first edition was in fact an early proof. my copy is one of these. anyway, it seemed promising at the beginning. until the characters were exposed for their true natures. in contrast to the corrections, where there was sympathy to be felt towards each character's situation, there was none to be had here because each person's unlikeable properties were inherently due to their rebelling against their parents and therefore enmeshed in their personality. i was equally frustrated but where there was something to identify with in each of the Lamberts, the Berglunds were all the types of people that i don't like much. i am wondering now if it is because i don't identify with so many intrinsically american themes, you know the ones which are caricatures - rednecks, petty suburban revenge, etc - but which are relatable if you know people like that. which i don't.

i also did not much care for the 'theme' of 'freedom' which was rather heavy-handed at times - oh ho ho so many types of 'freedom' and how restrictive they can be oh ho ho.

in any case the point of this is that i am now curious to read the final proof edition to see if it is any better. i in fact sent off my title page to harpercollins to redeem my new copy. like a true pedant i copied my incised page and taped in the photocopy. sooo when i get the final proof print i guess i will read it again. and compare.

lv. ah sweet mysteries of life, roald dahl
this was ok, now i want to read danny the champion of the world again.