the half way mark AND literature review

somewhere in between landing in tokyo, rushing 45 kids in and out of the tokyo metro, doing on the spot language interpreting, and getting less than 5 hours of sleep a night, i managed to finish one mediocre novel and get 3/4 of the way through an other.

my friend sue (an other program coordinator/manager) and i did a 'crap' book exchange. the work ('what happened to henry' by sharon pywell) that i read and gave to sue was from a co-worker/friend in austin. she confessed, 'now, i only got this for a dollar. so, don't expect much, but there is something that i don't get about the story and need to talk about.' we will talk more about this when i get back, but for now some initial thoughts.

this is often the blessing/curse of traveling. the goal is stretch your personal boundaries. eat food that you wouldn't normal seek out, meet people you wouldn't normal cross paths with, and be open to ideas and beliefs that up until now you have been shutting out.

the good part - you get to come home w/ magical stories that often your friends and family are too busy to care about.

the bad part - you spend your time in some dump hanging out w/ a blabber mouth, know nothing know-it-all.

or you read 'what happened to henry' and 'the memory keeper's daughter' back to back. like the blabber mouth know-it-all, 'what happened to henry' keeps hammering the same story over my head again and again. the story chronicles year after year for over 20 YEARS how henry's either a A-1 whacko (and his little sister is not that far behind), or he's channeling a japanese survivor of the hiroshima bombing. there's no controversy with his sister. she's out there. and worst of all, by the end of the book i stopped caring.

if i was in the comfort of my own home i would be surrounded by friends and books that i liked. there would be no room for a drunk to corner me in a bar and go on and on about how the sudden break up of his marriage was the catalyst for his voyage to east asia. likewise, i wouldn't have been trapped in a business hotel with the writings of sharon pywell. but i was and i soaked up the whole story.

as for 'the memory keeper's daughter', i have more i can say on that, but for now this know-it-all drunk will let you go.