Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Beautiful Drowning




I have a gift.  I can completely immerse myself into a book for hours on end and never leave the world the story teller has created for me.  I can forget any trouble, see through any mess, become oblivious to my surroundings.  At certain times I have been informed that this is not a blessing but a curse.  I acknowledge that it was, at the time, a curse to them, but to me, always a gift.

I just finished Zero To 60 (The Motorcycle Journey Of A Lifetime) by Gary Paulson.  The journey in question was about 10,000 miles from New Mexico to Alaska, long and scenic, but hardly "the journey of a lifetime" by geographical standards.  What the author must have meant was the way each point of the trip reminded him of a place or event in his long and adventurous lifetime which he shares with us in the 179 pages brilliantly.  

His use of language describing his tough and sometimes cruel path through childhood in Minnesota, through his years in the Army, and beyond was a near perfect balance of the literal and the poetic.  While not always understanding his decisions, the reader does understand the depth of his pain and torment.  Alternating from the current trip to Alaska to the lessons of life learned long ago at the hands of an unmerciful, unforgiving world, we are kept interested by his observations and even paced writing.  The book cruises along much like the Harley Davidson in the story.

The book does suffer, badly at times, from poor editing and proofing.  The kind that make you re-read a passage 3 or 4 times to understand it.  Sometimes leaving you with just an impression of what was meant rather than a literal understanding.  This book is not for everyone.  But if you like to hear stories told from sailors, farmers or other salt of the earth people not encumbered by clean language and political correctness, you might enjoy this quick read.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Even so, these sorts of dumbbells is often found which has a variety of minimum and maximum weights.



Here is my homepage - http://www.getfitnstrong.com/bowflex-dumbbells/bowflex-selecttech-dumbbells-ultimate-home-exercising/

Anonymous said...

Even a professional bodybuilder doing sets of ten leg presses will never
probably go in excess of 700 lbs . by substantially, and in precisely the same context a 400 pound squat for 10 repetitions is quite exceptional
"I you should not care who you are".

Feel free to surf to my homepage dumbbell sets

Anonymous said...

This will continue to keep you from having hungry and assist you to shed fat.


Feel free to surf to my weblog - Personal Site