Back in 1999 I had an Irish boyfriend called Tom. Tom was incapable of telling the short version of any story. He was also unable to give a direct answer to any question. If you tried to hurry him along or encouraged him to get to the point already, he'd get very upset and hurt and then take even longer to get to the end of the story. If you could sit still without interrupting, his stories often turned out to be very interesting or even funny, but it took a lot of patience on the part of the listener. ME: "So, did you end up going out for breakfast this morning?" TOM: "Well, I went into the kitchen to see if there was anything that looked good to eat, and then I got a call from an old friend of mine. He was originally from Bemidji, but he went out to Oklahoma to work in the oil fields back in the 80s. We used to tease him a lot because of the way he talked. He thought his hard hat was called a helmet...blah blah blah...He was the one who taught me all about f-stops on the camera...[insert long explanation of how f-stops work]..." ME: "So is he in town? Did you go have breakfast with him?" TOM: "I'm getting to that!!!! You never listen to me!!!!" LONG SILENCE....TOM: "So anyway, he got married and moved back to Bemidji and now he has six kids...." Half an hour later, I just might find out if he ended up going out to breakfast that morning. If you can tolerate long rambling storytelling from someone like my old boyfriend Tom, you might enjoy this book. It seems like the plot might have some promise. Something to do with people from the Midwest moving to New York City and getting hit by lightning...and groups that meet in the city to talk about conspiracy theories...and guys from Bemidji who know all about f-stops on cameras...(just kidding, I made that last part up). I'm not giving this book a rating. I'm not saying it's a terrible book. Christopher Bollen writes well, but after about 40 or 50 pages I just wanted to shake him and say, "So, Christopher, DID you end up going out for breakfast this morning?!!!"
The Drift Of Things
To yield with a grace to reason
Back in 1999 I had an Irish boyfriend called Tom. Tom was incapable of telling the short version of any story. He was also unable to give a direct answer to any question. If you tried to hurry him along or encouraged him to get to the point already, he'd get very upset and hurt and then take even longer to get to the end of the story. If you could sit still without interrupting, his stories often turned out to be very interesting or even funny, but it took a lot of patience on the part of the listener. ME: "So, did you end up going out for breakfast this morning?" TOM: "Well, I went into the kitchen to see if there was anything that looked good to eat, and then I got a call from an old friend of mine. He was originally from Bemidji, but he went out to Oklahoma to work in the oil fields back in the 80s. We used to tease him a lot because of the way he talked. He thought his hard hat was called a helmet...blah blah blah...He was the one who taught me all about f-stops on the camera...[insert long explanation of how f-stops work]..." ME: "So is he in town? Did you go have breakfast with him?" TOM: "I'm getting to that!!!! You never listen to me!!!!" LONG SILENCE....TOM: "So anyway, he got married and moved back to Bemidji and now he has six kids...." Half an hour later, I just might find out if he ended up going out to breakfast that morning. If you can tolerate long rambling storytelling from someone like my old boyfriend Tom, you might enjoy this book. It seems like the plot might have some promise. Something to do with people from the Midwest moving to New York City and getting hit by lightning...and groups that meet in the city to talk about conspiracy theories...and guys from Bemidji who know all about f-stops on cameras...(just kidding, I made that last part up). I'm not giving this book a rating. I'm not saying it's a terrible book. Christopher Bollen writes well, but after about 40 or 50 pages I just wanted to shake him and say, "So, Christopher, DID you end up going out for breakfast this morning?!!!"
