Book Report

Last spring my father started reading Then We Came To The End. However, he did not come anywhere near the end. And, since he had to get that book as far away from himself as he possibly could, he mailed the hated book to Virg and me. Then one day this summer Virg picked it up in desperation, and ended up loving it. She flew through it, laughing as she went. And so I started reading it, and it immediately became clear why Virg loved it so much. Virg's secret passion is to read random blogs about people complaining about their co-workers, which is exactly how this book reads. It takes place at a struggling advertising company that's laying off its people one by one, and yet everyone spends their days goofing off and gossiping. It begins as a blur of characters, but gradually you realize you don't really need to keep track of them, as the author keeps reminding you as needed. And you get sucked into the gossip, determined to find out what really happened to so-and-so's chair, etc.

In a way, the book reminded me of another book I enjoyed in the recent past: The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night. That story is narrated by a fictional autistic kid who is wrapped up in various details and misses all the serious emotional turmoil around him, just as the Then We Came To The End characters are too busy gossiping to recognize that their co-workers are coming to terms with divorce, unwanted pregnancy, loss of a child, etc. As the reader, you don't really stop to think about this stuff either, because somehow you just really want to know what's going to happen to that office chair. Part of this detached experience comes from the book's unusual narrative style: It's told in first person plural ("we"). Then halfway into the book, the voice changes, and for just one chapter, you're given an honest look at the boss's loneliness as she comes to terms with having cancer. And when you're thrust back into office gossip again, and the book's humorous events now take on an undertone of tragedy. And when I came to the end of the book, I found I had really enjoyed its entertaining and touching look at office life.

The other two books I enjoyed recently were authored by Barack Obama. I already wrote about how much I was enjoying Dreams From My Father during the run up to the presidential election. Well, it never disappointed. He tells his story so beautifully it feels like reading fiction. It reminded me a little of reading Sting's memoirs about his parents and beginnings, entitled Broken Music. If you read only one Obama book, read Dreams From My Father. Written shortly after he graduates from Harvard Law, the book traces his early life in Hawaii and Indonesia, his experiences as a community organizer in inner city Chicago, and his journey to Kenya to meet his father's family. The story focuses on the role that race plays in his life. It's a story about someone who is seen as a black man, but feels like an outsider in the black community, given his mixed and unusual background, and who, more than anything else, is just looking for somewhere he feels he belongs--a place he seems to find at last as he connects with his extended family and learns about his origin from them. It'd be impossible to read this book and not love Obama, for his honesty, insights, and genuine efforts to do good.

Obama wrote Audacity Of Hope in his first year as a U.S. senator, but it still feels honest. About half of the book provides the more detailed views behind the sound bites we heard in his presidential campaign. That half can be a little dry. But the other half, sprinkled throughout the book, consists of fascinating accounts of his time in politics. At its most personal, this is a book about a man contemplating the distance that his political life has put between himself and his family.