What are you supposed to expect, with a title like that?

This is the book my fabulous book club chose this month. I had honestly never heard of it before. The blurb just starts out “A young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing; one of his mistresses and her humbly faithful lover–these are the two couples whose story is told in this masterful novel.”

When i read that in the bookstore, I said, “Oh goody! It’s a book about sex!”

Well, that idea was killed on the first page, and I was upset.

Until I read a little further.

Masterful, yeah. And a few other words i haven’t thought of yet.

My favorite parts were how he addresses ideological movements, and the smallness of individuals in the face of large forces.

His discusison of Oedipus had be pacing all night, chewing on all the ramifications and talking to myself.
Well, talking to my cat.
That’s why I have a cat. So I don’t talk to myself.

I finished it, and immediately wanted to read it again. That hasn’t happened in a long time.

The funny thing is, I read a book that was a parody of this one. It was a parody of other books too, but as I was reading this one, I kept thinking, this is familiar.

Then I remembered, It’s the sort of book that If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler was ripping on.

And I suddenly realized that If On a Winter’s Night A Traveler was a lot funnier than I had realized.

But hey, the point is, I love this book. I will not be selling it back.

My question, after only a few pages into this book, is Why haven’t I heard more about it?

This is a really great book.

It’s kind of like crossing a good Tom Clancy with Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Just imagine the marvelousness of that, and you have Catch 22. It’s very funny, it’s very profound. It works on almost any level you want to take it.

I heard that Tom Brokaw, in his younger days, was totally enamoured of this book. He went around writing “Yossarian Lives!” on things.

I can kind of see why.

And therefore, more people need to read this and put it on their favorites list.

I was looking for a different book, but it wasn’t there. So I just grabbed this one:

Jim Valentino’s A Touch of Silver Book One: A Sociopath in Training

I was looking for comic books, since this funny guy at work is all into him. Every time I pass his cube he tells me the Superhero (or villain) of the day.

THese are selected by his “Superhero of the Day” Calendar. There was a time when my brothers were all into comics…And so I read a lot of them, slipping the precious booklets out of their plastic sleeve and turning the pristine pages very carefully.

The Superhero of the day is usually someone I’ve heard of, which amazes the heck out of me.

And it reminded me that comics are fun.

WHich is why I checked out this “Graphical Novel”. That’s what my comic buddy reminded me to call it, “It’s not a cartoon,” he said.

Okay, fine.

This book was not about superheroes, but about a kid who liked superheroes. He used them to escape from his icky life and not-very-nice family.

I like the devices Valentino uses to progress the story every once in a while, going from in the moment to after the fact. THis builds a little tension and lets the reader feel more of what’s going on internally.

I’m going to check out book two…