lines of flight

Even without any major travel since our jaunt to the Bay Area in May to see Bjork in concert at Shoreline Amphitheatre, my summer was busy with the freelance writing I mentioned and the big deal in July, our QuadMag.com 10-year anniversary party.

Never mind that I was supposed to be working on my MA project, I managed to squeeze in a couple books just for fun: Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia and the last half of Paul Theroux’s Dark Star Safari, which I had on loan from the library since ah, 2005. (Gotta love the generous faculty/staff borrowing privileges.)

The title links above go to amazon via my affiliate name and if anyone buys following these links, I’d get a small commission. I’ll be surprised if this turns into a revenue stream but figured why not, I shop amazon for books, CDs, movies, all kinds of things.

My impressions of these books after the jump.

Dreaming in Cuban attracted me simply for being about Cuba and having a style influenced by magical realism. I especially enjoyed the inclusion of santeria religion and the stories of many female characters unfolded over generations. It was a lovely light read but ultimately lacked that transcendent, get-lost-in-it quality that I crave from fiction.

The Theroux was inspiring as always just on the strength of the journey itself, traveling Africa overland from Cairo to Capetown. His arrogance was less abrasive to me and came off more curmudgeonly than in previous work, and thankfully didnt overshadow the spots of prose that really glowed.