Today I finished a book. Shocker. If you thought I was going to talk about something other than books on this blog, you are on the wrong blog. But I digress.
Today I finished a book. Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver. Let me tell you a story about this book. My dear friend Alison (shout out!) let me borrow this book from her house almost a year ago. The book was beautiful- hardback with that all too sweet cracking when the binding was disturbed. This book was a gift to her and I felt awed when she offered to allow me to borrow it. If you have been listening to our podcast, you will know that we sisters have been pretty steady in the ebooks via our shared family kindle library. Every book we read is on our kindle, conveniently away from the wear and tear of our pet and kid and life filled lives. We can take multiple books with us, protected in kindle covers. It has been awhile since I've had to care so deeply for a piece of literature's body. When I first made the switch to e-books, it was hard. Books (real paper books) are beautiful, but I knew that it was the words that made them really beautiful. What kind of counselor doesn't live by the mantra that it is the inside that counts? With our kindle library, we get the pleasure of sharing them with each other, which makes the books even more beautiful. I don't need a shelf of hard backs just for show! (okay okay, I'm still convincing myself;)
Back to the story, I carry my kindle around with me in my purse. Errrrrrrrrerywhere I go. After about minute of doing this with the hardback, it was already showing signs of crumpling. It was distressing. Like making even the tiniest crack in your grandmother's china. With a deep desire to hold respect to my friend and her china, er, book, I put the book on the shelf and never read more than a fourth of it. Plus, I was in my last of everything in grad school, and it is hard to care for anything gingerly in the last of everything in grad school, let alone to actually read anything for pleasure. I finally gave it back to her, and we were both left disappointed. I vowed I would read it on my kindle and have a tea with her when everything was finished. When my Aunt Kimberly (shout out!) gave me a gift card to Amazon for books as a graduation present, this was the first book that I bought, both on kindle and audible.
I listened to it throughout Christmas while I baked and wrapped and cleaned and finished it this week as I started my hour total commute to and from my new job. It was a luscious experience in and of itself to hear it narrated with multiple accents. Later I learned that Barbara Kingsolver herself narrated it. I never wanted to turn it off and go to work. I never wanted to stop doing chores! It was a Christmas miracle!
As for the book itself, in true Kingsolver fashion, this was a dense book written with stunning prose. The main character, Dellarobia (I want comments on thoughts about that name!) walks into the book complicated and leaves the book complicated, but grows to be one of the most respected and courageous characters you will ever meet in your lifetime. She asks many questions, challenges herself to take the best (but not easy) road, and still has grace towards others, even when they believe and act blatantly different than she does. When you walk away from this book, you could simplify it in many ways, be offended, take sides, or you could simply listen and let yourself be with Dellarobia for awhile. For example, Kingsolver writes about the most "offensive" topics, the pick-a-side topics, the anti-dinner-table, anti-holiday-party, and dare I say, anti-podcast topics (And you thought I was the "good girl" of the sisters! Shame on you!). She writes about butterflies (not so offensive), marriage (still pretty PC), socioeconomic chasms (warmer), global warming (BAM), religion (CRASH), and yes, politics (my least favorite-insert your worst Onomatopoeia here) and so much more. But this is still fiction, and that is the beauty, my friends. She tells it with gentle courage, through Dellarobia and her mountain of butterflies. She says everything I cannot find the words to say and makes me find the words I really want to say all at the same time. And maybe you will find your words too, because after all, you can't say them at the dinner table, unless you are a rebel.
As mentioned before on the podcast, I always take the offered privilege of reading the acknowledgements. You should ALWAYS read the acknowledgements, but this is another blog post for a later day. I read that Barbara Kingsolver received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in 2011- an award given in my very own city! I'm swelling with pride. I had never heard of it (woops!). I found the 2011 speeches and I watched this acceptance speech by the lovely Barbara herself. It was so enlightening, to say the least. She talks about the expected and the unexpected ways that literature promotes peace, which I believe is exactly what Dellarobia's story does. It causes one to think deeply, to empathize, and to practice the pursuit of understanding another human being's point of view. Literature is a tool in helping us to understand that most things in life are much more complex than an "us versus them," dualistic lifestyle that sometimes we are too tired to swim against.
Woof! I feel like I just exerted a marathon's worth of mental energy and depth into that blog post! Next time I will stretch and lather with vaseline in odd places.
Also I've added some things to my bucket list: Read Dayton's Literary Peace Prize award books every year and attend one Dayton Literary Peace Prize gala in a very fancy dress and get an autograph in a hardback book.
Be courageous, loves. Peace out! (Get it????)
One of the SisterLit,
Jillian
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