The Comeback Season

It is late and I should be going to bed. This is a sad book to finish on.

“It’s a kind of sadness that has lodged itself in the back of her throat like a pill that refuses to go down.”

I thought that line summed up Ryan, she is so tenuously holding on. Her father died five years ago and she is finding it difficult to move forward. Her freshman year hasn’t been good. And she is a Cubs fan. Fittingly she is also cautiously hopeful. She meets Nick at the opening day of Wrigley Field. And in him there is more to hope for, which means of course tragedy is on the horizon. Of course, can’t write a book in which being a Cubs fan is a metaphor or a road map to life without tragedy on the horizon. Which I say pretty flippantly because I think in the long run the metaphor, and the conceit of bargaining annoyed me. But there were some pretty moments in Smith’s writing. It was atmospheric, textured, full of the sorrow like that unswallowed pill.

I will post a follow up tomorrow but here is how I stand -H

This was 246 pages – 3 hrs 20 min Totals – 2486 pages (not counting the 32 on the book I gave up on) and 26 hrs 50 min. Less pages than last year but no books in verse either.

Books read – 9, Blog Entries 8 – cuz I combined 2 books.

Best Book – My Most Excellent Year

Least Fave -ummmmm other than the one I put down???  Liked them all enough.