Jon Taylor > Recent Status Updates

Chapter 14: Apologies to Bill - he was still walking the AT - I’d missed that somehow. Much more entertaining chapter on Centralia (a town permanently smouldering which set my imagination alight too) and the chemical desolation of the Lehigh Valley.

Perhaps it’s my mood this evening but I wonder if there’s enough for a book in this. If you’re going to write about walking the AT then walk the AT and write about it. This chapter about splitting from Katz and going on little mini-adventures that your heart wasn’t really in feels a bit like filler… although I enjoyed the Stonewall Jackson stuff.

Hell isn’t always other people. Many people seem to be genuine, kind, respectful and funny. But, sometimes, they are not. I suppose when you’ve been in nature with one other companion for a suitable length of time, large groups of boorish party-people must, indeed, seem like Hell.

Shenandoah National Park seems like the place to go. Bears! The visit in the night must have been incredibly exciting / terrifying (‘what are you going to do, give it a pedicure?’).

Stories of our carelessness with nature - specifically the loss of the Great Chestnut to an imported Asian blight. A whole species 100% gone. Nobody really cares. Collectively, mankind is a shit.

It’s been about 25 years since I read my last Bill Bryson and here he is again, picking up the conversation like we never stopped it. His is a warm, familiar voice, naturally self-effacing, humble and funny. Like an old friend - if Carlsberg made old friends…

A black block appears in the gardens of Darujhistan. Lots of multi- character action but I still don’t feel the stakes.

The big bad has arrived. Don’t know why Erikson didn’t build him up more - feels a bit like it was added on to keep the story going somehow. Would have given the middle of the book more tension. Things moving again now though.

Disappointed in the story. Just not gripping enough. Can’t seem to grasp the stakes and don’t care enough about the characters. Will read to the end now, and hope that there is a powerful climax that sorts all this.

Where’s the epic overriding plot that ties everyone together? This feels disjointed with too many subplots that are beginning to feel like they don’t need to be there. Slowing me down at this crucial stage of the book…

Weird passage with Hairlock, Paran, Toc, Rake and the Hounds. Some of this seems pointless - wildly imaginative and still interesting, but I really hope all those strands mean something in the grand scheme of things.

T’laan Imass lore is cool. Not sure why Lorn is crying. So many threads: it’s tricky keeping them all to mind - I’d forgotten Hairlock!

Exciting mage battle.

Starting to understand that things happen before they get explained in this book. Quite rewarding if you stick with it. And the last chapter stepped things up pace wise. Good.

Tattersall reborn. Kruppe is irritating. Not sure who I’m supposed to be rooting for but I think that’s how it’s supposed to be. So many characters and subplots that it is a little difficult to follow - also lacking a bit of excitement at the midpoint - but I’m still confident it will be worth the effort.

Becoming very convoluted - hanging on at the moment. Hope this all pulls together into something epic. Still enjoying the ride though…

Author says that readers will have made their minds up around the first third of the novel as to whether they are exasperated by the detail and lack of exposition or are in it for the long haul. Well, about a third in I’m in the latter camp. Must confess, found it hard to ‘start again’ after Book 1 finished but am feeling myself drawn back in…

Detailed, intricate, gripping. You have to grab hold and hang on - little is explained but the lore is convincing and rich. Good battle scenes too. Going to enjoy this.

Peach picking hell. Another call for unity amongst the workers. Casy.

Ma seems to suggest that Tom is special - maybe Christ-like? Family moving again. Rosasharn sickly and sad.

Excellent change of pace as the dance starts. Multiple points of view build the tension - very cinematic before cinematic was even a thing! Steinbeck does de Palma. Really good scene.

No work. Deeper poetic section about the search for leisure amongst the migrant workers. All laced with the sadness of nostalgia. Of past and of home.

The govt camp is a sort of communist utopia. Some talk of wage fixing by the trade associations. Townspeople demonising the itinerant workers is reminiscent of immigrants in Europe. Steinbeck warns of a revolution. This is still controversial for Americans even today.

Hooverville. Distrust of cops - they represent the protection of the landed classes not justice. How much of this resentment is still there in USA? How much is still true?

More than a paean to communist views, Chapter 19 was a call to arms. Steinbeck presents the situation that leads to revolution. Again, I can’t help but see parallels today with the oligarchs and tech bros and the boats. Interested to know how America avoided this then - the New Deal? Steinbeck absolutely blames ‘ownership’ and greed. And yet, here we are…

Found some of the music Steinbeck mentions - old time guitar tunes they picked in the encampments. Brought a whole new feel to them. This is a strongly communist book. And I can’t help but equate this with the immigrant experience today. Dreading the family arriving in Cali. It’s not going to be pretty.