Once-a-librarian’s Comments (group member since Sep 18, 2017)

Once-a-librarian’s comments from the Tompkins County Public Library Community Read group.

This story wasn't my favorite in the collection, especially after "Basic Training" where the donkeys broke my heart, but I appreciated all the action taking place within 24 hours and how much that span of time revealed about Jackson Jackson. Although he blew all his chances to get back his grandmother's regalia but, in the end, he survives.

I'm curious to know your general impressions about this book overall? Feel free to comment on individual stories too, if you like. How do you feel about "Blasphemy" being selected as Tompkins County Public Library's 2017 Community Read?

It's October 31st and it's Halloween. This is the last story in the "Blasphemy." How did you like it?

The saddest story in the collection. This broke my heart and made me cry. Absolutely. Why do we need to involve animals to accomplish this?

There's so much future projection in this story, but I thought it was lovely. This follows "The Search Engine" in the collection - interesting reflections of 21st century culture.

I felt that the narrator, Corliss, was searching for herself and that her quest led her to the Spokane Indian poet, Harlan Atwater. She asks, "How can you live a special life without constantly interrogating it? How can you live a good life without good poetry?' Like a young Indian on a vision quest, hoping to discover"Who am I? Who am I supposed to be?" by finding out who someone else might be. Without the ancient ceremonies, she made up her own. It was about her Odyssey, her own personal epic that would continue long after her meeting with Harlan Atwater.

I agree it would be an interesting prompt! In Zee's workshop, she used "write your own obituary" as one of the prompts. There was a really good piece that came out of that.

Cady wrote: "I read this one aloud at the read-a-thon, and chose it because I felt the voice was so different from his other pieces. I loved this, with the mother sending various swarms to catch her child's att..."

Beautiful comment, Cady!

This one seems to blend magical realism with the narrator's guilt in this story along with guilt from the previous story ("Old Growth.") A kindly view of leaving home as in "flying out of the nest" vs. the potential sting from hornets (guilt) for not remembering the mother who gave you life.

Sorry, but this story didn't speak much to me at all. The title is curious, though. Old growth of what? marijuana? or Guilt?

This story looked at a marriage from both Mary Lynn's and Jeremiah's points of view. I appreciated this. Do you think they differed much?

A view of aging, illness and death through the eyes of a young newspaper intern who reluctantly takes over the obituary desk when his mentor dies. It's a sad piece with Alexie's signature humor that lightens it up.

It's interesting how "salt" comes up repeatedly throughout this collection. Salt preserves, salt heals.

Here we are - Story # 23!

I wondered if Alexie was drawing a comparison between religion and prosthetics -- religion as a crutch? His stories seem to embrace our humanity - virtues and defects - and I sensed more humor than condemnation of the fundamentalists in this story -- an all-around disparagement.

Social media posts about ourselves usually avoid the embarrassing moments, things we'd rather not share. They're not really funny or cute or, forgive the adjective -- "awesome!" They're not pathetic, like rejection. Alexie underscores the realism in the details of one's regular life.

The narrator went to some pretty extreme lengths in this story to dispose of a mattress. How did you feel about his neighbors' reactions? Did they seem justified? I think it maybe it was the buildup of generations of racism, his symbolic act was too little, too late, perhaps?

Cady wrote: "I agree, this is my favorite story in the book so far. The tone is different from his others, much more tender. I especially felt the ending - I read it through a few times - it felt really real an..."
Yes, it was beautifully sweet. I also found it interesting that the two phases of their marriage began with lies but then subsequent honesty about who they were and, I suppose, acceptance of defects in the other.

I like how Alexie writes of distinct, memorable people/events for each grade. The format made me reflect on my own experiences in grades 1 - 12, and I think he captures the universal angst of going to school, at least back in the 50s and 60s, although I don't recall if he mentioned a time frame.

This story is so tender, so real, so painful. I loved it. That's all.

Spoiler Alert: How morally innocent is a man who kills a 16 year old kid who breaks into his apartment to steal his stuff?

The narrator feels sorry about it, and it's hard not to be sympathetic since we only get to read his side of the story. But where is the "moral center"? I think Alexie gets to the heart of it, "skips the door" (or the obvious) when he admits to being pissed at himself for not walking away, and for the realization that, in one "unlucky cut" he wiped out the life of a kid who, one afternoon, had made a bad decision, but who might have stopped making bad decisions if only he'd had the chance to live.

Two nail-biting insomniacs meet over a manicure in New York City. I love the simple dialog in this piece that communicates such intense loneliness in that city of millions.