Missing, and Reading
I have been around but not writing in my journal and, hence, not writing in the public version of my journal, this blog. The semester is over and I'm in marking mode. In a couple weeks I'll be done, and at that point my new summer schedule -- meeting my supervisor once a week, writing the dissertation daily, trying to map my days out in a somewhat reasonable fashion -- will commence.
Right now I'm enjoying taking time off from marking to read fiction for fun. It's been over a year since I read a novel that wasn't related to my dissertation, and now that the public library is open again I'm relishing the piles of books I can throw myself towards, plucking out whatever cover or title appeals to me, and consume novels within days. This week I finished a book by Tim Pears, an English author, called Blenheim Orchard. I enjoyed it, and the more I think about the more I discover the complexity of the narrative. The one thing that annoyed me, though, were the names of the characters: Ezra, Sheena, Blaise, Hector, Louie -- what family has names like this? Why do writers feel they need to give their characters such outlandish combinations of names -- names that are almost intrusive in their transparent non-normalcy?
I've now started another novel, by a young New Zealander -- it's called The Method Actors. The first character I met was named Michael. I already like the book.