Case Histories is ostensibly a mystery novel, but it’s really about loss, the ways in which life can violently veer out of control, and how people endure in the wake of tragedies that rob them of the ones they love.  The novel weaves together the stories of three separate families, each of them seeking ways to heal long-open wounds inflicted by another’s death or disappearance.  While Kate Atkinson paints an unflinchingly bleak and desolate picture of human existence, she imbues the book with moments of dry humor–scattered asides and observations that her characters make in the midst of even the most horrific of circumstance.  Like a lot of British writers, Atkinson understands that the world isn’t necessarily a good or safe place, but that sometimes people need to laugh in the face of its assorted cruelties. 

 

I need to pick up my reading pace.  Next up, Stephen King’s Cell or Ian McEwans’s Saturday, depending on my mood.  I’m also looking for nonfiction recommendations.

The Kleptones, the mashup artists response for the Queen-inspired A Night at the Hip-Hopera, just released a new album entitled 24 Hours.  I’m going to give it a listen and post my thoughts later. 

 

A friend asked me to post a link to his burgeoning on-line business, Getella.  I so don’t have what it takes to be an entrepreneur.  I can barely sell my allotted tickets for a fundraiser next Sunday. 

Hero Joy Nightingale is a young woman living in the UK who has “locked-in” syndrome, a congenital disability that makes it nearly impossible for her to speak or move.  Hero is also a writer of immense talent.  Her essays are full of dry humor and poignant observations of her own life and its daily struggles.  She has a keen sense of how others perceive her and she is blunt in expressing her own fears and frustrations.  She used to edit a webzine entitled From the Window, which included guest essays from Kofi Annan and Stephen Hawking.  She made mention of plans to attend Oxford in 2003, but she seems to have fallen off the Web since then.  If anyone knows what happened to her, I’d love to know. 

A new study done by the University of Minnesota reveals that atheists are the country’s most distrusted minority.  I continue to find it amusing that some people try to accuse atheists of promoting some sort of secular religion, the ultimate aim of which is to turn every church to rubble and legally mandate bacchanalian orgies in front of every elementary school in America.  I read one post somewhere on the Internet that said, “Atheism is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.”  While I long for the day when atheism isn’t regarded as malevolent ideology, I will not waste my time writing screeds exhorting the masses to abandon faith and embrace humanist ideals.  But this study might prompt me to shelve any political aspirations I might have.  Instead, I might have to infiltrate the staff of some innocuous Unitarian or Congregationalist and use his or her office to promote my godless agenda. 

 

I do get some comfort from the fact that liberal men are better in bed, which assures me that there is some small degree of justice to be found in the universe.