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"Maybe not like worms but like a million little podules, each a tiny city of cancer, each with an unruly, sprawling, environmentally careless citizenry with no zoning laws whatsoever. When the doctor opened her up, and there was suddenly light thrown upon the world of cancer-podules, they were annoyed by the disturbance, and defiant. Turn off. The fucking. Light. They glared at the doctor, each podule, though a city unto itself, having one single eye, one blind evil eye in the middle, which stared imperiously, as only a blind eye can do, out at the doctor. Go. The. Fuck. Away. The doctors did what they could, took the whole stomach out, connected what was left, this part to that, and sewed her back up, leaving the city as is, the colonists to their manifest destiny, their fossil fuels, their strip malls and suburban sprawl, and replaced the stomach with a tube and a portable external IV bag. It's kind of cute, the IV bag."
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers. page 4.
I chose this excerpt because it reflects my initial outlook on this novel and Eggers' narrative. I was amused at the way Eggers depicted the cancer cells harboring in his mother's body but at the same time his whole situation was still heartrending. At times when I think he's just avoiding confrontation with his true emotions (due to the lack of expression in that area), yet there are other times that I think that maybe he's over it and he's just writing about how situations like this can be conquered. Even in the excerpt above (as well as the surrounding context), there's no sense of what he's actually feeling about the situation but I see him as a detached character, who's indifferent and impartial to what's going on. All he comments on are trivial things like the IV bag being cute.
I started reading this morning and still haven't put the book down. (Yep, this morning. But I guess you should consider how I was behind a little as of last Wednesday and just got to the book today.) His writing seems simple when you look at it in terms of how real it is. Almost as if he's speaking to me in person and and describing everything right before me. But on the other hand, his writing is rich with details and the way he portrays his situations is so creative. I have a feeling that by the end of this book, you might see a book change in my list of fives. We'll see.
--aesun
Posted by Aesun Kim on 5/2/04; 8:12:57 PM
from the dept.
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