Patrick’s Reviews > The Making of Americans > Status Update

(I’m not done with the book. Hopefully they will add the page number to this edition soon)

Have you read Three Lives?

I haven’t actually read a single book by her 😅😆 i think I own a copy of that book but I’m not sure heh. I might’ve lost it somewhere, heh. I wanted to read “the autobiography” by her but never actually found a copy. I think I’m subconsciously wanting that interiority that I found lacking in the Forsyte saga lol x_x

I did read Three Lives, but I really didn’t like it, so honestly I don’t think you’re missing much by not having read it haha.

😂 loll I’m glad to hear I avoided a bad one xDDD after hearing about it i felt like it would be a book id read at a snail’s pace lol. Right now this book is very slow but that’s ok bc I’m reading Mr. President right now too and it’s been really interesting and I’m on the third chapter and it already has had intense events!!!

*and this book(TMOA) might take a long time, but, I’m hoping no book surpasses how long it took me to read The Tale of Genji…(13 years x_x)

Thirteen years?! If I took that long to read a book, I think I’d forget the beginning before I ever reached the end. At that point I’d probably have to start over and accidentally turn it into a lifelong project haha.

Heh yeah I didn’t wanna give it up. I’ve even taken it transatlantically at times 😆 it was kinda cool to kinda grow up with a book when I think about it now. When I finished it finally a few years ago, I felt a deep sense of “what do I even Read now? What books are even worth reading now? Should I even read anymore?” But yeah heh.

Patrick wrote: "Heh yeah I didn’t wanna give it up. I’ve even taken it transatlantically at times 😆 it was kinda cool to kinda grow up with a book when I think about it now. When I finished it finally a few years ..."

It’s really interesting that you formed such a deep connection with it, Patrick. Thirteen years sounds wild at first, but if you practically grew up with the book, I can understand why finishing it left you with such a strange sense of disbelief. At that point, it wasn’t just something you were reading anymore; it had been part of your life for years. I imagine closing it for the last time must have felt a little like saying goodbye to something.😊

Heh yeah it I was always hoping to finish it sooner but I would take breaks, and then I had to check out an extra copy from the library to get one or two chapters that were never translated in the translation that I actually own lol. And yeah! It felt like finishing it would be some sort of major life achievement and it totally felt like that when it happened..i felt such disbelief that it was actually done 😆 and ironically enough, the book kind of feels like it could’ve kept going and not ended!

Patrick wrote: "Heh yeah it I was always hoping to finish it sooner but I would take breaks, and then I had to check out an extra copy from the library to get one or two chapters that were never translated in the ..."

Oh Patrick, it must have felt like saying goodbye after all those years. I think I’d miss simply having the book there once it was over.🥲

Yeah D: putting it back on the shelf for the last time felt like I was “laying it to rest”. and that’s why over the few years since I’ve almost been tempted to start it all over again heh. It’d feel like having “my book buddy” back lol. Someday I guess. and maybe with the more recent edition. And maybe not 13 years heh. And speaking of this book, TMOA. I’ve definitely found a quote I enjoyed that I would totally add to a book update of this book but sadly still no page numbers to the edition: “We all are the same all through us, we never have it to be free inside us. No brother singulars, it is sad here for us, there is no place in an adolescent world for anything eccentric like us, machine making does not turn out queer things like us, they can never make a world to let us be free each one inside us.”
I found it to be profound. Who is the “us”? It feels one can insert anyone to be that “us.” I like it.

Patrick wrote: "Yeah D: putting it back on the shelf for the last time felt like I was “laying it to rest”. and that’s why over the few years since I’ve almost been tempted to start it all over again heh. It’d fee..."

I think that’s what makes the quote work so well, Patrick. The us never really closes around one particular kind of person, so almost anyone who has ever felt slightly out of place can step into it. I especially like that idea of a world being unable to make room for whatever doesn’t come out quite as expected.😊