2005 book 154

james meek's the people's act of love
here is my customary "dang, this book was good" entry opening: wow. wow, wow, wow. dang, this book was good. it's the story of a small town in siberia in 1920, where various characters face upheaval due to various revolutions. some of these characters include a widowed photographer and her young son, a jewish lieutenant with the czech army, his insane cokehead commander, an escaped prisoner, and a community of castrates. this book is jsut so well-written, though; lots of hints appear as gradually layers of the story are peeled away and secrets are revealed. i think this was on the booker longlist, proving yet again that booker nominees are way awesomer than national book award nominees (or maybe proving that british(/affiliated) authors had a way better year than american ones). :)

unrelated: i stayed up late last night to watch dirty dancing on cable tv (damn commercial breaks always come at the good parts). it's weird, b/c i loved that movie when i was a little kid (it took me a few years to figure out what was wrong w/ penny), but by college i thought it was pretty boring and stupid. and yet last night i was totally into it! it was filled with dramatic tension and sexy dancin' and jerry orbach! i found the class warfare very compelling, and the portrayal of that small chunk of time when jewish resorts in the poconos were total hot spots to be pretty fascinating. for a moment i had the urge to reread marjorie morningstar but i'd rather keep making my way through my immense to-read pile for the time being.