Did you hear the one about...

[monk222]

I am relieved to find that Mr. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves” is not too post-modern for my more ancient sensibilities. I was afraid that it was going to be another bad pick, and I really couldn’t afford another of those at this point, like maybe I should have taken up Tom Perrotta’s “Joe College”, something safe and fun. But fortune favors the bold, and this one is shaping up to be a favorite, though an experimental work can fall through at any time, I suppose. Still, how can one go wrong when you have material like this:

This time, Tom breaks the silence: “Did you hear the one about the guy on the tightrope?”

Navidson grins: “I’m glad to see some things never change.”

“Hey this one’s true. There was this twenty-five year old guy walking on a tightrope across a deep river gorge while half way around the world another twenty-five year old guy was getting a blow job from a seventy year old woman, but get this, at the exact same moment both men were thinking the exact same thought. You know what it was?”

“No clue.”

Tom gives his brother a wink.

“Don’t look down.”

And thus as one storm begins to ravage the Virginias, another one just as easily dissipates and vanishes in a flood of bad jokes and old stories.

We’re still basically talking about good storytelling and good writing, though I take it that Danielewski goes too far astray with his more recent second novel, “Only Revolutions”. And I’m afraid that David Foster Wallace’s “Infinite Jest” may be too dry for me. However, Amazon has recommended “Rabid” by T. K. Kenyon, and this novel about a priest, a professor, the professor’s wife, and his mistress looks like a must-read to me.

I’m glad to discover new pastures and liven up the old reading life. I needed this.