Paper Towns, by John Green****

This book is fully as awesome as An Abundance of Katherines, if not a little bit more so. Quentin ("Q") is a nice Jewish boy whose two buddies are Radar of the colored persuasion, and Ben who is indescribable--all three are high school seniors. They go on an 1,100-mile search for a missing classmate, and by the end Quentin has grown up in a lot of ways. I guess this is one of your classic "coming of age" tales.

Some fascinating features of the book are the "paper towns" themselves, towns that almost got started, but never made it.

The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford****

The Good Soldier, by Ford Madox Ford, from Gutenberg Project online.

This is one of the best novels I have ever read. But it's written in the most infuriating English way, so that I can't give it five stars. Many places in it call for tears, but don't draw them forth because of the proper British presentation. Still, I persevered through it, straining my eyes to read it on the computer.

Ashburnham and Dowell, two highly sympathetic male personae, are confronted in life by an impressionable but rather stupid girl whom they both love, and one of the most intellectually cruel women (Leonora Ashburnham) in all of literature.

From hints in reviews of the book, I gather that it's supposed to be based on a true-life experience of Ford himself, or possibly of people he knew. If I had it in paper form, I would read it again.

An Abundance of Katherines****

"When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has . . . an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun--but no Katherines." (Blurb from back cover.)

This is a delightful book, of the YA genre, I suppose. Yes, I'm sure kids do talk like that these days. Maybe they always did. Anyway, Colin is on a quest to fill the hole in his insides left by Katherine XIX. This entangles him with firearms, a feral pig, a Goliath-sized bully, and any number of less ominous adventures. I highly recommend it, even for OA's.


***
On Easter Sunday, Jed and I attended the Leeds Presbyterian Church, where I saw old friends and was welcomed by a lot of new ones. Sister Susan treated the family with a very fine Easter dinner at her house. A sumptuous feast.


During the recent hiatus in my blog posting, I've attended a poetry group meeting. Jed has visited from the great state of Georgia a couple of times, and I saw my doctor last week. He recommended reducing one of my medicines and adding still another. I'm "of two minds" about adding more drugs. But I'm usually of two minds about almost everything.

Maytime

Soon May will come, with all the flowers that bloom,
et cetera. Will I still sit in this room
awaiting inspiration for poetical creation,
but writing only sterile gloom and doom?

Oh, no! I shall go forth to Nature's world,

and walk beneath the trees, and see the squirrels
and the chipmunks on the ground, hear the birds' melodic sound,
and perhaps to spy a hawk with wings unfurled.

I'll enjoy the exercise and health I'm gaining,
kick a few dead soggy leaves from fall remaining;
I will jump and skip and run, and when all of this is done,
improvise a little dance—unless it's raining.

Too long I've hidden from the world of people—
men and women, dogs and children, church and steeple;
I'll no longer play the hermit, but I'll sing and dance like Kermit,
and inhale perfume of flowers, bud and sepal.

Heaven strengthen me to keep this resolution,
and to my sad complaints find the solution;
let me confidently hope I'll no longer sit and mope,
but reform my world without a revolution.

By JRC 04/19/17