Cannonball Read #9: Cities of the Plain by Cormac McCarthy

Seriously?  I don’t even need a happy ending.  Can something genuinely good happen to one of McCarthy’s characters?  Just once in between the heartache and tragedy?

20-year-old John Grady Cole and a 28-year-old Billy Parham work together on the same ranch in New Mexico in Cities of the Plain, the third novel of the Border trilogy.   Their stories seem to parallel their previous tales in All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing.  Cole falls for a Mexican girl he can’t have, and Parham searches for and loses another brother.  McCarthy never explains what happened to these two guys in the years since the first two novels.  He simply picks up with where and who they are now.

Cole hasn’t changed much in his last four years, though with the single-mindedness he displays in this book I would have expected him to still be after Blue Eyes from ATPH. (No mention of her.) Instead he has his eyes on a young prostitute that he is determined to rescue from her pimp.  We see throughout the novels his characteristic need to save the pitiful helpless.  Perhaps Cole is especially unrelenting with this girl because he gave up on the last?  He won’t repeat this mistake and live with another regret?  Even if it means putting himself in mortal danger.

Parham’s had over ten years to mature.  The last time we saw him he was bringing back his brother’s remains to bury properly.  Parham now looks after Cole as both a friend and brother.  He attempts to advise Cole to stay away from the girl and her dangerous master, but when that fails, Billy is the one who has his back.

Both are always determined to do what they think is right – whatever the consequences.  They respect the other even when in complete disagreement.  Neither quit the other.  The friendships that McCarthy has illustrated (Cole and Rawlins/Cole and Parham) are the some of the best examples I’ve seen.

There is one particularly aching moment for me in the epilogue.   We find a 78-year-old Billy Parham speaking to a woman about the brother he lost over 60 yrs ago, missing him still and dreaming of him.

The truth is that I have been won over by McCarthy.  I can’t remember the last time I cried while reading, and he’s reduced me to hot, heavy tears every time.  As much as I might complain that his characters get the shaft, it’s only because I love the people he creates.

THP 2010: Week 6

Last week’s resolution was to Give proofs of love.  I only got to practice this for a few days since I had just returned from Vietnam on Thursday.  And in all honesty I spent much of that time (Thurs-Sat) sleeping.  But between that time, I found ways to show love to my  younger brother who is living with me.  Little things, really.  Since I was home all that time, I did a lot of the chores that usually “belong” to him.  We normally do our own laundry, but I took the time to fold his stuff and leave it in his room.  I do all the grocery shopping.  This isn’t new, but I always look for things that I think he’ll like.

The problem is that I mainly practiced it on my brother – someone I get along with quite well.  I’ll be working on doing the same with those relationships that are perhaps more strained or just simply not as strong.

This week’s resolution is to Fight right.

2010 Happiness Challenge

“How I Write” with Cary Holladay

“Writing is something you have to do on your own.  You have to take it seriously and be willing to be lonely while you do it.  It’s an activity that requires a lot of humility and a lot of confidence.  That is something I have to balance daily.  But simply to live is an extraordinary experience, and when you write, you deliver chunks of experience to your readers.”

The Writer March 2010

Cannonball Read #7 and #8: Stiff and Spook by Mary Roach

Stiff: The Curious Life of Cadavers is a novel covering a fascinating subject that is rarely touched upon in popular culture.  What other options are there for your physical body besides burial or cremation?  Mary Roach covers the history of the dead body with humor and interesting side notes.  There is a refreshing sense of respect in her writing for these stiffs and the services they provide to humanity once their owners have left the building.  Roach writes on body snatching, dissection, scientific studies, cannibalism, composting, and more.

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife expands on some ideas found in Stiff.  For the most part, it presents man’s history of soul searching.  Where is the soul?  Can it be physically measured?  What happens to it when we die?  Does it even exist?  Roach even discusses the history of mediums and paranormal researchers.  One chapter I found quite interesting was of a researcher who believed that so-called hauntings were due to the hallucinating effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on the brain.  He studied this by exposing subjects to a  laboratory-generated EMF in order to create a synthetic ghost.  The author put herself in the researcher’s hands, and she did indeed experience some phenomena.  “Glimpses of faces, utterences that flash though my conscious mind so quickly I can’t remember them a second later.”  The researcher claims that of a thousand people tested, eighty percent claimed to have felt a presence.  Some spoke of colorless, gray people.  One even claimed to feel something pull her leg.

Mary Roach’s style of writing is entertaining, and her novels make for a quick read.  She has a third novel titled Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex.  Coming up on Cannonball Read…

** Pajiba’s interview with author Mary Roach can be found here.

Cannonball Read #6: The Crossing by Cormac McCarthy

You don’t read McCarthy for a happy ending.  That’s my conclusion so far after having read only three of his works.

The Crossing is the second novel in the Border trilogy.  Once again the protagonist is a young teen on a quest in Mexico.  16-year-old Billy Parham sets out to return a pregnant she-wolf to the Mexican mountains.  Things don’t go as planned.  He returns home to discover his parents are dead and their horses stolen.  He crosses the border a second time with his 14-year-old brother to retrieve their horses.  Things don’t go as planned.  Billy finds himself returning to America alone.  War has broken out, and he attempts three times to enlist.  Each time he is turned away due to a heart murmur.  Billy eventually crosses the border for the third time.  This time in search of his brother.  Again and again, Billy is assailed by tragedy.  Each time he faces the problem head on, shoulders set, and with a stoicism far beyond his years.

My heart breaks again and again for this boy.  In the lowest point of the novel (SPOILER) (unless you’ve read McCarthy before, and then you already know how this story is going to go), the reader finds Billy attacked by robbers.  He is left holding his hat against the bleeding chest of his stabbed horse while the remains of his brother lie fallen on the ground.  There is such a feeling of hopelessness and utter failure.  Where does such a boy find the strength to carry on?

I enjoyed McCarthy’s creation of a living legend in Billy’s younger brother.  He becomes so after a rumor of his heroic action against the corrupt spreads throughout Mexico.  It is merely a misunderstanding of yet another dangerous event in the boys’ journey, yet the stories grow until Boyd is celebrated in songs and tales.  It is sweet and gives this young boy an immortality that very few achieve.

I love McCarthy’s use of Spanish in these novels.  He doesn’t feel the need to translate after each dialogue as I’m sure many other authors would.  I think that part of the charm of the novels is how deeply he takes the reader into the heart of Mexico.  You can taste the grit of the dusty roads.  You smell the spices of the food cooking in the old pots.  And part of being in a foreign country is the language.  You may understand the context and tone, but you don’t catch all the words. You rely heavily on the nonverbal and often only bits and pieces of verbal communication.  Yes, I understand Spanish, but I can still appreciate McCarthy’s insistence on taking the reader to the real country.  Not the silly little spots filled with mobs of  tacky t-shirts and sandaled socked feet.

The next novel in the trilogy features both Billy Parham and John Grady Cole of All the Pretty Horses.  Dare I hope for a better future for these characters?

THP 2010: Week 5

February’s focus is love.  This week’s resolution is to give proofs of love to friends, family, co-workers, etc.  The idea is that if you act in a loving manner, you will feel more loving.  This in turn will lead to a happier life.

I just arrived home from 3 weeks in Vietnam and Thailand, and I’m already off to a good start.  I brought back special gifts for the important people in my life, things that I picked out for specific individuals and their interests.

I firmly believe that you sometimes have to act out what you want to feel.  I don’t always feel loving towards the people around me, but I can change that with my own behaviors.  I can change from the outside in.

2010 Happiness Challenge

**I’m doing better with the Cannonball Read – 5 books to write up.

THP 2010: Weeks 3-4

I spent most of week 2 in Vietnam, where I have more than satisfactorily fulfilled my resolution of “Get more exercise.”  I’ve been walking about 4-5 hours a day.  I’m still getting to bed around 10:30am, and I’ve been getting up between 4:30-6:00am most mornings.  Cannonball Read has fallen (once again) by the wayside, but I’ll have another 20+ hour trip back to the states to try to make up for lost time.

Week 3 was about tossing and organizing.  I haven’t gotten a chance to do so at home (still in Vietnam), but I’m very much a minimalist when it comes to clutter.  My goal will be to clean out and organize my office when I return home.

I have had the opportunity to see what I can live without and what I need to stay sane.  Three necessary items so far: ice, lip balm, and chocolate.  Oh, and never underestimate the power of hand sanitizers and wet wipes! I’ve been living out of a small carry-on bag since we’ve left Saigon and have been traveling through Nha Trang and Hue.

Week 4’s resolution is to tackle a nagging task.  I’ll have to leave that until February, but I already have a small list of tasks that have been sitting on the procrastinating back burner for a while.

In the meantime, I’ll continue with my current resolutions.

The Happiness Project: Week 3 and Week 4

Getting ready….

Today’s my last day to pack.  Mostly.  I don’t leave until Wednesday morning, but I work a twelve on Tuesday.

Everything is on my bed or on the floor by my bed.  I’m trying to pack lightly, but Cindy already told me I needed 4-5 dresses just for the wedding weekend.  That takes a lot of room.

I’m making a list so I can go out and pick up all the last minute items.  I can’t forget more gifts for my hosts.  Some other Vietnamese told me they’ll love peanut M&Ms.  And anything that says “Made in the U.S.A.”  Ok, then.

I really have no idea what to expect over the next three weeks.  I’m trying to be ready for anything.  I’m leaving with an open mind, an empty journal, and a camera.

What else do I need?

Cannonball Read #5: All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

All the Pretty Horses is a novel about a teenager in the late 1940’s  who sets off to Mexico with his friend.   John Grady Cole is the product of generations of Texas ranchers; ranching is what he knows and does best.   His grandfather has just died, his parents are separated, and he finds himself cut off from the life he always imagined for himself.  He ventures across the border in search of a new life.

He travels with his friend Lacey Rawlins.  Together they meet a young teen who calls himself Jimmy Blevins  and allow the boy to travel with them.  This decision colors the rest of the events of the novel and leads to tragic situations.  Their friendship and the loyalty that accompanies it is tested again and again.

The friendship between Cole and Rawlins may be one of the best male bonds I’ve seen portrayed.  Their personalities clash.  They often disagree.  They have sparse conversations about deeper matters such as love and God.  It isn’t overly sentimental but rather matter of fact.  I am a man.  That is my horse.  You are my friend.  I won’t quit you. Again and again, I won’t quit you.  Even when one disagrees with the other.  Even when it puts one in danger.  I won’t quit you.  A similar line was more recently made famous in the movie Brokeback Mountain, but I found it much more moving here. Here it is self-less.

Cole finds himself falling for the beautiful, blue-eyed daughter of a Mexican ranch owner.  Their affair is  passionate ,star-crossed, and another source of discord between Cole and Rawlins.

What I found most astonishing throughout the whole novel was how young the boys were.  16-years-old.  I would keep forgetting as I read along through the hardship, the tragedies, the frightening danger, murder, the love gained, and the love lost.  It seems so adult.  In a modern society where adolescence extends well into the mid-twenties, the maturity of Cole is impressive.

I don’t know that my 16-year-old self would have stood a chance in the same situations.  I do know that I wouldn’t have had any trouble saying yes to Mr. John Grady Cole.  Rowr.  Move over Mr. Darcy.  We have a new literary crush to add to the list.

*Yes, I know he’s only 16-years-old now.  This was the first novel of McCarthy’s Border triology.  I understand that Cole reappears in the third novel as an older man.  So there.

**You can see my review on Pajiba here.

THP 2010: Week 2

Last week’s resolutions to set a bedtime and make my bed were successful until last night/this morning.  I stayed up late talking with my brother and sister (who had stopped by).  This meant I woke up tired, rushed to get ready, didn’t make my bed, and was running late to work.  All due to the lack of bedtime.

Up until then, I was making myself get into bed between 10 and 10:30 the nights before I work. (An hour later before my days off.) I had some time to read before falling asleep (another personal resolution: finish Cannonball Read.)  I woke up rested and got up earlier and easier.  I immediately made my bed after getting up.   I got to work earlier than usual (i.e. earlier than the absolute latest I can clock in and not be late.)

It was amazing to see how my sleep affected so much of my morning, not to mention the rest of the day while running on a full tank instead of a half or quarter.

There were a few things that helped me keep a bedtime.

1.  Change for bed and wash my face about 2 hours before my bedtime.  This makes me ready to climb into bed.  Nothing else to do but slip under the covers.

2.  Chamomile tea.  I used to drink this every night before bed, so for me this is another signal that I’ll be going to bed soon.

3.  Set the DVR to tape any later shows I think I might want to see.  This way I don’t stay up to watch, and the odds are good that I will simply erase them a few days later.  This also helps me toward my own personal resolution of less TV in 2010.  I’ve found most of my mindless TV watching comes at prime time and later.

4.  Exercise.  Not much really, but I’ve been walking the dogs most nights.  It helps.

This week’s 2010 Happiness Challenge resolution is get more exercise.  Walking my two energetic dogs has already added an extra dose of activity to my life.  The key word this week is “more.”

Small.  Realistic.

I put together a small group (4 people) at the last minute (turned in papers five minutes before deadline – started recruiting members an hour before) for a 12-week weight challenge at my hospital.  The rankings will be by percentage lost.  The teams are comprised of 4-6 members, and the grand prize is $600 for the team.  Obviously it wasn’t the prize that I wanted.  $150 per person isn’t quite the dream win.  What I want to win (besides a healthier me!) is the bragging rights on my unit.  My charge nurse was putting together a team, and I was told I couldn’t be on their team.  And then repeatedly told again (I didn’t ask again) that I didn’t have anything to give them.

The truth is that I could maybe do 15 pounds realistically.  They were talking about the challenge again today as they had to turn in their papers.  I decided that I’d put together a team of people who are perhaps just 10-20 pounds overweight but certainly more motivated than the other team.  I think we could beat this team of 6 by losing a larger percentage of body weight as a team.  I’ve worked with most of the women on the other team for 2 years.  If there’s anything I’ve learned, it is that they don’t exactly motivate easily.  They talk a lot, but you rarely see any action.  They never work any harder than the minimum required.  The girls I recruited were also rebuffed by the other team’s members.  Hence, the motivation.  Plus, these guys work hard on the floor.  I know they’ll put real effort into the challenge.

The beginning weigh-in is Jan. 12th.  I’ll be in Vietnam for the first 3 weeks of the challenge, but I don’t expect to find a lack of physical activity.  I plan to be an awesome team leader.  I’m even starting a blog for it.  Plus, there are a few other people who may become part of our group unofficially since the deadline has passed.  They are all welcome.

My own personal goals for this week are to continue to keep to my bedtime so that I can wake up early and rested enough for a 20-minute workout before work in the morning.  I recently bought the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD.  One 20 minute workout (Level 1!) left me with achy thighs for two days.  It is hard.  Plus, I need to get smaller hand weights.  They’re only 8lbs, but it really was too much for the repetition involved.  My biceps were sore.  I could hardly take the stairs at work.  I’ve healed enough for me to do it again tomorrow.

My best bet to keeping to an exercise routine is to do it in the morning.  The only way for me to do that is to continue the bedtime.  I may even start setting it earlier.