February 2, 2021

I'm going to keep talking about books and movies until I'm caught up on my Mlog and Blog. But before I get into that, I wanted to say that it was kind of weird at the skating rink yesterday. Granted, maybe Sarah and I talk too loud as we skate slowly round and round the rink. Maybe people are just annoyed with us and our Instagram obscurity. But also, I got the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine five days ago. (It's all I can do to not just say every three seconds, "I'm going to be immune!") I still wear a mask on the rink (one of about the 20% who do). I'm biding my time, acting according to mask guidelines until enough of the general population gets the vaccine. But I feel like running up to people -- I can be like normal around you guys! (Which of course, isn't a normal thing to do.) I want to tell them -- "We can go back to how it was before!" "It was all a dream!" 

Okay, Blog time. Warning SPOILERS. 

Leilani, Raven -- LUSTER

Published: 2020
Read: 01/2021

        Edie is a 23-year-old aspiring painter working in publishing and sleeping with most of the guys in the office. She's been dating a new guy -- Eric, white, 40s, suburban, in an open marriage, -- when she loses the job. Out of money and without parents to support her, (her mother died of suicide and her father is estranged) she moves in with her boyfriend's family, which of course includes his wife and their black adopted daughter. Edie kind of mentors the daughter -- the only other person the black girl has encountered in the whole neighborhood. Eric's wife does autopsies, and she eventually brings Edie with her to paint the cadavers. Edie gradually falls out of love with Eric, and at his wife's insistence, moves out. 

        I thought this novel was a little slow but good. It's worth noting that Leilani studied under Zadie Smith, and the book has some of the same indelible richness while also (for me) moving a bit slow. The most interesting relationship was between Edie and Eric's wife (who's name I think was Catherine? I listened to the audiobook and am bad at remembering character names). I think she was more lonely than Eric. Edie was a threat but also an interest to Catherine -- her paintings, her ability to maybe help their daughter, her youth. Catherine takes Edie to a punk show in the city, and you can feel how hard core she is. A kind of raw energy that has been pent up into competence and industriousness in her suburban life. I'm also a sucker for literary novels that contain a visual artist and describe visual art. (In addition to this book, I'm thinking of Little Fires Everywhere.) Edie takes photos on her phone of everyday objects around the house and then paints them in her room at night. I want to start painting again. I hadn't though of how you can just paint anything. Take a picture. Paint it. Play with light. Cut it out. Remove it from context. Be a voyeur into the domestic center. I've been posting more on Instagram of just random trees and stuff thanks to this book. Not sure the followers appreciate it. 

Rating: ★★★