Karina Caillas Caillas itibaren Texas itibaren Texas

The War on Terror is just not as much fun as the Cold War, and this book is not vintage Le Carre. But a good read nonetheless. The book suffers from it not focusing on British characters who could be played by Alec Guiness - the Chechen Muslim at the center of the book is not interesting as a central character. But the the dramatic suspenseful end of the book is terrific. I will now go see the movie, Phillip Seymour Hoffman's last performance.

"My mother's name was Mercy Stone Goodwill. She was only thirty years old when she took sick, a boiling hot day, standing there in her back kitchen, making a Malvern pudding for her husband's supper. A cookery book lay open on the table: 'Take some slices of stale bread,' the recipe said, 'and one pint of currants; half a pint of raspberries; four ounces of sugar; some sweet cream if available.' Of course she's didvided the recipe in half, there being just the two of them, and what with the scarcity of currants, and Cuyler (my father) being a dainty eater. A pick-and-nibble fellow, she calls him, able to take his food or leave it." A fat-free vanilla frozen yogurt version of The House of the Spirits's dark chocolate Haagen Daz ice cream. That's pretty much all I can say about this book. Okay, I understand that this won the Pulitzer prize, and is therefore amazing. I recognize and appreciate that the writing is wonderfully done, and I had no trouble finishing this story and was glad I read it. But for some reason, it just never grabbed me in any meaningful way. It's a story about an ordinary woman, living an ordinary life, and dying an ordinary death. Nothing earth-shattering.