1 down, 179 to go

I finished Freedom yesterday. Freedom is an excellent novel. The writing is outstanding and the struggles and conflicts that drive the story bubble with authenticity. I've been dealing with family discord of my own and every parent knows what it's like to question your choices and worry that you're not doing the best that you can for your children. There is a very strong political current throughout the story. Those aspects of the novel were highlighted by the moderators of a couple of podcasts I've listened to since finishing the book, but I don't see them as essential to the novel's success. Politics were more a prop driving actions and identity. The novel succeeds despite the politics. Bush was a big deal to people when Franzen was writing the book, but he's faded in relevance, particularly with the rise of Trump. 

The characters just felt politically naive to me. They adopted well established liberal positions with little conflict or thought. There is a smug superiority in their positions, particularly Walter's environmentalist crusade, and they eagerly criticize those few characters who take different political positions. The depiction of this uncritical adoption of the "correct" position on socially charged issues resonates with me after watching the reaction to Trump's election. I was shocked by how easily people had accepted the characterization of Trump as a homophobic, bullying bore. People had picked Hillary's team and were happy to cheer for her while rooting against the evil Trump. The sad truth is that the major parties are essentially working towards the same end (consolidation of power). They use different words and distract people from what they're doing by feeding the media's drive to cast every political contest as some kind of big game, but people in Washington just want to get power and money regardless of their party affiliation. Decisions are made based on which position consolidates influence and wealth in the hands of somebody with a big office somewhere in DC or NoVa. Larger societal concerns are secondary.

So it's on to the next book. If I did not have a long trip to Disney World on the almost immediate horizon (next week!) I would just have picked up Crime and Punishment and been on my way. Thinking about reading Crime and Punishment while riding on the train down to Florida (an overnight trip with a solid couple of hours remaining in the trip after we wake up) made me reconsider that course of action. It didn't take me long to settle on Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I've had this highly regarded and frequently included in all kinds of best fantasy book lists book on my shelves for years. I've been putting it off because it's long. I spent a couple of years with the long fantasy books of the Malazan series. Something like JS & Mr. N is not exactly the first thing that came to mind when I was looking for something to read between those Malazan monsters. It also lives on an out of the way bookcase in an extra bedroom. I have to intentionally go looking for books on these particular shelves. I just didn't think about it because I didn't see it. I would also be remiss if I did not acknowledge my 52 books in a 2016 goal as a factor in my neglect of this book. It takes a long time to read an almost 900 page book. That kind of time commitment is not exactly easy to swallow when you're working on a deadline. It's just this kind of thinking that I'm working on breaking away from this year. That's why picking up JS & Mr. N was a pretty easy decision.

I've made a reasonable start with this very thick book. (Even my son commented on how thick it is.) It won't be the easiest book to read on the train or after a long day of walking around Disney parks only because it's kind of hard to hold onto when I'm laying in bed. The story itself is intriguing and enjoyable (at least the 40 or so pages I've managed to read so far). I'm looking forward to finally reading this long neglected novel. I also started a book on my Kindle app. It's also something that I've had for a long time. I bought Boy's Life when it was the Daily Deal back in December 2013 (I didn't have that info handy, I had to look it up in my Amazon account). I read the other book I bought that day, Annapurna, soon after that purchase, but I just keep skipping over Boy's Life. I didn't really know anything about it when I bought it. I figured it was cheap and it's fun to try different stuff. If I hadn't started this whole Book Shelf Zero thing I would probably keep skipping it in favor of more immediately appealing books (like Seveneves). Boy's Life feels like a fun book that will be easy to read when getting out a big fat book like JS & Mr. N isn't the easiest thing to do. After reading the first few chapters, this definitely seems to be the case. This will be a fun and easy book that will pass the time and get me one step closer to Book Shelf Zero. Only 179 more to go.