I finally finished A Storm of Swords, all 1100+ pages. And I thought Tolstoy gave me a run for my money. I have to say it will win my award -- hands down -- for the most un-put-downable novel of the year. Believe me. My whole family will attest to how insanely obsessed I have been with this book.
That said, I'm going to be experiencing some post-traumatic stress. I don't know which is worse. Scenes that I find so awesome that I actually revel in the gratuitously violent aspects, which causes me to question both my character and my sanity ...
I stole this gif from here.
or the bits that are heartbreakingly sad and disturbing. George R.R. Martin ought to win an award for the most gratuitous brutality to some of his characters. There is a certain image from the Red Wedding that has gotten embedded in my brain in a particularly tenacious and nasty way. All I could say at that point was ...
I stole the Silver Linings Playbook gifs from here.
That was the point at which I was afraid my Kindle was going to explode. Seriously. I have it on good authority that televisions have been known to off themselves due to an overload of gratuitous fucked-upness ... And then there was the outcome of a certain duel. *Sigh*
In other matters, in our homeschool, the teens and I are continuing to discuss books and movies set in modern Africa.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah -- This is such a beautiful book. This account of a child's experiences with civil war -- and being drugged, brainwashed, and forced to serve as a soldier -- is certainly heart-wrenching. But it isn't entirely dark. There are innocent and human moments, and it offers interesting glimpses of tribal culture in Sierra Leone. And as part of our ongoing discussion of the cycle of human evil and violence, this book speaks volumes about how people not only become desensitized to violence and human suffering but become addicted to it. Better yet, it offers hope for rehabilitation and healing.
We also watched this:
Machine Gun Preacher is a biopic about a former drug dealer who became a humanitarian worker in the Sudan during the civil war. It was recommended by Ruth.
Next Up:
Sometimes in April is a 2005 historical drama television film about the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, written and directed by the Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck. The ensemble cast includes Idris Elba, Oris Erhuero, Carole Karemera, and Debra Winger.
Linking To:
Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey
