I’m happily joining Kat and the Unravelers today with one finished sock and a good start on the second. I still need to kitchener the toe on the first one, but I’ll wait until both are done. I’ve finished the heel flap on sock #2 and just need a few quiet minutes to turn the heel.
I snapped a few “sock in the wild” photos at Ryan’s house. His hydrangeas and sedum are blooming, and they made a nicer backdrop than my own parched lawn.
I did finish a book this week and it was a good one. So Far Gone by Jess Walter is an
absorbing, funny, and surprisingly tender novel about one man’s
reluctant reentry into a world he thought he’d left behind for good.
Rhys Kinnick, once a journalist and now a near-hermit in the Pacific
Northwest, finds his solitude upended when his two grandchildren appear
on his doorstep, fleeing a father who’s fallen in with a Christian
Nationalist militia. When the kids are kidnapped, Rhys, helped by a
retired detective and a sharp-tongued ex, has no choice but to face both
his past and the fractured country he’s been avoiding.
The setup
could easily veer into bleakness or satire, but somehow Walter walks a
real tightrope here. The book is very much about Our Present Moment,
with political division, disinformation, and despair, without getting
you so steeped in the terrors of the far right that it feels more like
stress than storytelling. There are moments when it's laugh-out-loud
funny, but it never feels like Walter treats his subjects too lightly.
Rhys
is a man who can be saved, a man whose ideals and disappointments are
equally large, whose disillusionment extends not just to society but to
his own moral failings. Walter treats him (and the broken country he
mirrors) with empathy and wit. The result is a story that’s humane,
sharply observed, and unexpectedly hopeful.
If Beautiful Ruins was Walter’s elegy for ambition, So Far Gone is his meditation on retreat and return, and it proves that running from the world is never the same as healing from it. This one was a solid four stars for me.
What are you making and reading this week?
I just finished one Christmas stocking and need to start another one for my house. Also I need to get back to the socks I started for my husband!! Lovely outdoor photos of the sock, you'll be done in no time at all.
ReplyDeleteRyan's sedum look lovely! I miss my sedum. The moles really love to eat those things. You have been a steady knitter lately, Bonny, with lots of FOs, and those socks are really cute. I just got So Far Gone from the library yesterday, so I am very pleased to hear it's good. I read I Who Have Never Known Men yesterday. A very original book that was one of the strangest I have ever read, but it's written very well and makes you think. Not a fun read, but I'm glad I read it.
ReplyDeleteSocks in the wild are always fun! (my sedum is not as brilliantly colored as Ryan's.... wow!) That book sounds very interesting, I have not read anything by that author. Hmm, perhaps I need to remedy that!
ReplyDeleteThat sock just jumps right off the screen!
ReplyDeleteThe recipient loves bright colors, so she'll have plenty in these socks!
DeleteRyan's blooms are gorgeous! And Jess' shortie socks look great against those blooms. You'll be finished in no time (today's rain might be an invitation to sit and knit!). After reading Kym's review of So Far Gone I added it to my TBR list. Your review confirms that I should get it sooner rather than later. Like Kat, I have not read anything by this author.
ReplyDeleteMy hydrangeas seem to be mostly done for the season, so I'm a bit jealous of Ryan's. I hope those socks get finished up quickly so you can get back to the rainbow scarf. I've got a bit of a wait for So Far Gone, but it's not a problem because I have plenty to read in the meantime!
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about So Far Gone, Bonny. I'm glad you liked it, too. (Jess Walters is a favorite author of mine . . . ) I love the bright socks! What a perfect gift. And Ryan's blooms are just lovely.
ReplyDeleteThat blue hydrangea is lovely, mine are done at this point so it's nice to see one still blooming. I thought So Far Gone was terrific.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed So Far Gone for all the same reasons. It really captured this time that we are living in now. Gorgeous colors of your socks and blooms!
ReplyDeleteI've only read two books by Jess Walter but I've enjoyed both of them so I should look for more of his novels. I'm down to the gusset decreases and determined to get these socks done (so I can get back to the scarf)!
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