Thanksgiving Discovery

I know how swamped you've been, Norm...or at least I can imagine. Toddler, baby on the way, pregnant wife, very important jury service wrapped up...and then there's the j-o-b. On top of all that, there's books and reading.

Bleeding Edge I imagine is occupying whatever reading time you have for yourself, and then afterwards if you're still inclined is that skinny Mishima book, The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the Sea.

So, here I am with some days off, and I took a sojourn from my housework and went down to my friendly Dollar Bookstore. I was perusing the disheveled shelves and saw a book by an author whose last name I recognized, Flanagan. A quick glance showed that it wasn't the author I thought, it was someone named Bob Flanagan. Hah, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if there were a Richard Flanagan book in here...that's why, after all, I was even looking though the "F" section.

Since the "F" section is pretty ragged, and around the edges last names starting E and G are easily seen, it's easy to imagine that within the section itself, nothing is really alphabetized. As I started to leave the aisle, my eyes caught another Flanagan name. It even looked like a Richard...could it be the same?

I grabbed the copy from the shelf and snatched it up, and before I even read the title of the book I noticed underneath the author's name it said, "Author of Gould's Book of Fish." Sold. I carried it around until I left and bought it.

I didn't bother to read the back to find out what it was about. Wanting is the title, and the lady with the rose on the cover only registered in my brain long after I was home and deciding to check out the meat of the story.

Here's a rundown, and Norm, since you know how Flanagan structures his stories, you can imagine how this one can turn out: In real life a guy named Sir John Franklin took his wife and left for Tasmania where, after a while, his wife fell in love with an aboriginal girl. Later, in real life, Sir John and his entire crew went missing on a trip to the North Pole--cannibalism was suspected.

Those are the real events that Flanagan uses to frame this book...

...And now I have to force myself to focus on other shit and not read it until later. It is just over 250 pages, though...

Another book to add to your already-too-long list, brother.