Vote It Up: Book Blip

March 17, 2010

I'm looking at the (wo)man in the mirror

I'm really not trying to create beautiful synchronicity.  For some reason, however, all of the memoirs I've been reading lately seem interconnected.  At the end of The Kid, Dan Savage worries over the age old question: to circumcise or not to circumcise.  Shalom Auslander fretted over the same decision at the end of Foreskin's Lament.  Savage calls God out on his sadism in the following passage from The Commitment:
" . . . the moment you begin to believe you're worthy of the good things in your life - God gets all Old Testament on your ass and does something vicious, something insane, something totally uncalled for.  He give you lupus or He allows Satan to slaughter your children and cattle or He deliver Ohio to George w. Bush." (p. 50)
Sound like Auslander?  In the early passages of The Commitment, where I loll, Savage and his partner Terry are interrogated on family vacation by Savage's mom, step-dad, and siblings about why they don't get married.  His own aversion to marriage is reminiscent of Elizabeth Gilbert's feelings.  Both authors even do a little sociological investigation.  Her book is Committed.  His is The Commitment.

All of these authors are funny.

To recap:  I am reading funny, irreverent, smart writers who question societal norms and customs while surrendering to them, all the while worrying.  Forever worrying.  Gay, straight, male, female, Orthodox Jew, Buddhist, Recovering Catholic.  They're all me.

And now I'm feeling narcissistic.  Time to read about a Zen athlete, a cocky stockbroker or a roller derby queen.

2 comments:

  1. Zen athlete author sounds a little annoying. Like, way to be all perfect, jeez.

    ReplyDelete