A Christmas Story
Dearest of dear forgotten (yet still beloved) Readers,
I have been reading this book since September. I have left it at my bf’s house and therefore I usually only saw it on weekends, and only if there was time. And I think that was the best way, I certainly could not have gotten through its density faster. It is dense with emotions, impressions…the depth and shallowness of life…of course I am not doing it justice but it was a major hit when it came out in 2001. As well, it also encapsulates the late 90s…I was a child then so I wasn’t personally commenting on the decline of capitalism then, so its interesting to see the thoughts of a main character like Chip, in his 30s then, and so skeptical of the whole thing…which of course more people have cottoned on to now…
It was just…well! It was an experience. I don’t mind that I did not read so much this year. The things that have fallen into my hands this year have been worthwhile, even just this book and trying to read Wordsworth, making the time like it was 1850…Several years ago a good friend lent me the Corrections, saying it was really good, she also lent me a pile of things I suspect are really tough emotionally, such as Beloved by Toni Morrison; that will clearly take me years and years. The Corrections is, at points, pretty tough emotionally, but the payoff is huge. The tagline on the back of the book says that it is a meditation on “what is life for?” A question that is of interest to most people. I loved the characters, I really got into it, I believed in the family dynamics 100%, I loved when the characters, who mistakenly show so much of themselves looked sideways and commented (internally) on each other. Enid, Denise, the father (Arnold?) Chip and Gary are very real. I think they are going to stick with me for a long time.
Also, the book is just very smart. Such work. It weaves several storylines together, in the background, never losing pace but never hinting as to where it may be going, often it goes back into the past, it often goes into farce, and the chaos of the father’s declining mind…it is one of those books where I sit back and realize…I just could never do this kind of work…and it was very addictive to read. The whole book trundles toward a Christmas, that Enid wanted (how the desires of women keep the world turning!) which finally arrived when it was Christmas for me, in the world, a very nice synchronicity. And then, like real Christmas, the Christmas in the novel was over and life went on!
It is now the last day of 2023. Somehow! I am doing some reflections and trying to wrap some things up, in anticipation of the whole new world that is coming (2024….wow). I will leave you with a gift, I wasn’t going to tell you (what was for me) the greatest gift of The Corrections, I was thinking I was going to let you discover it for yourself, but, this line (presented like any throwaway line in amongst the other nonsense of life) may not strike everyone the same, maybe you wouldn’t even notice it. But for me, perhaps the greatest truth that I found anywhere during 2023, I found in the last 20th of this big book.
It was:
“and because what a person wants is what they are”…
What a person wants…
…is what they are…
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!