Saturday, April 19, 2008
a moveable feast
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
Ernest Hemingway
to a friend, 1950


I haven't read much that isn't baby or triplet related since I found out I was having triplets. My reading time has gone way down. When I was pregnant, I was either too sick or too stressed to even concentrate and now I'm too busy, too stressed, or I just haven't had the time to get to the library.

The books I did read while I was on bedrest were: The Blood of Others by Simone de Beauvoir, The Sun also Rises by Hemingway, Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald, and I was about 1/3 into All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren when the babies were born. David's reading it now, so I'll finish it when he's done.

The Blood of Others was one of my favorite books in college. I read it multiple times. I enjoyed re-reading it, but it was very different than I remembered it. The writing was self-indulgent and the characters kind of annoying. The ideas behind the plot were interesting, but the main character is almost paralyzed by his fear of interfering with someone else's life and it wasn't believable. Like, get over yourself. The idea of whose blood do you spill and whose do you save is an interesting and even powerful concept, and I found it thought-provoking in terms of war (it's placed in Paris before and during WWII), but in terms of relationships, it was crazy. You don't spend your life with someone out of pity, and you don't spurn someone to stay uninvolved. You love who you love. At least when you are young and unattached and deciding those things. I thought it was interesting too, that her lead male character was so complex and her lead female character was so two-dimensional. I know the idea was that the girl grew and changed and became more than she was, but you don't really see it until she is on her deathbed (that's not a spoiler because she is on her deathbed on page 1 and the rest of the book is written in flashbacks).

The Sun also Rises was a fabulous re-read. I've read this book at least three times before. I completely enjoyed it, but I felt differently about the characters this time around too. I was never rooting for Brett and Jake to get together. The whole book came together for me more this time, seeing Brett with the right eyes. She was beautiful, but weak and selfish and the ending was right.

I remember Crime and Punishment as a quick and interesting read. It was interesting again, but it was also painful, like a gruesome car wreck that you do not want to look at. Good, but I don't think I will re-read it again for awhile.

The Great Gatsby was the best of my re-reads. It was wonderfully written and the characters were as I remembered them and it was more interesting than I remembered. (I'm starting to run out of steam with writing this, but I want to at least get down my general impressions).

I won't write about All the King's Men until I actually finish it, but so far, so good. It was the only book in the house that I picked up during my pregnancy that I hadn't read before.

A few weeks ago, I finished A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway and the book was a feast. He writes about living in Paris with his new wife and young baby. He tells about his friendships with Gertrude Stein (which was very interesting for me as an art history major) and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The details were fascinating and left me wanting more information. It's funny because I felt like I was dipped back into Paris in the 20's and there's this mental setup I do in my mind when I read a book about the 20's that has just a little to do with what the author is actually writing, but I think was shaped in the first place by Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

The book is nonfiction, kind of. Hemingways says in the preface: "If the reader prefers, this book may be regarded as fiction." I don't know what that means, but I imagine it's due to the fact that he finished the book in 1960 but wrote out scenes with full dialogue and some of that had to be re-created in a way that is not exact.

The book has a sad ending because he tells how he he had an affair with another woman and hints at the end of his marriage and his regret is palpable. I've read most of Hemingway's fiction, but I've never been that interested in his real life. The fact that he destroyed his first marriage and that he died of a suicide just seemed so sad and so real to me, I cried when I put the book down.
posted by lochan | link
2 comments and fresh takes

Koyaanisqatsi
Right after I wrote last time I told myself that I should start writing once a week. It doesn't take very long and every time I write , it's a little memory that won't get lost. Everything just gets so busy, it's hard not to just say tomorrow.

The last two months have been especially crazy with work and I feel like I just don't stop until the babies are in bed. In fact, I have felt the least busy when they are awake. I'm just feeding, burping, changing, and playing with them. And that's busy, but it's fun busy. Working like I'm trying to beat the clock and getting stressed about how long it takes me to get in and get out of the grocery store is just busy busy.

These last two weeks have been better. My life feels like it's more in balance (see my title: did anyone else see this movie in the 80s?). Because :

1) I think because work feels better. Part of that is that I have actually gotten stuff done and am sort of caught up. But, more than that, I have decided to work for < -- this long -- > and then I'm done regardless of whether I'm done. Because it's starting to feel like a bottomless pit and I think in some ways it is. There will always be something I could do and I just need to decide what has to be done today and leave it at that.

B) I have been taking the time to work out. I'm basically just as busy - I'm just replacing work time with working out... but it feels better. Way better. When I'm at the gym I can totally relax. It's good for me and I feel better physically and mentally. When I don't work out, my goals for the day look like this:

take care of babies
work
work out
feed the family
spend time with the older girls
pick up the house
relax
get in touch with my good friend tv

Having something go undone like that day after day is annoying.

III) I'm not trying to cram everything into the babies' naps. If I need to go to the store or the post office or whatever, I will do it while the babies are awake and David can take care of them. I was trying to just do everything that wasn't baby-related during their naps and there simply isn't enough time. Also, if I need to catch up on extra work, if it's a good time for David, I'll do it while the babies are awake. It's much less stressful.

Having triplets is pretty hectic, but it's so much fun. Trying to make everything else work is the problem. But, I'm getting a little closer to figuring this stuff out.
posted by lochan | link
1 comments and fresh takes

Name: Laura

I have five kids including triplets. I'm too busy to blog, but I do anyway (uh, sometimes).

Learn more about me



My Antonia
by Willa Cather

June

Sarah's Quilt
by Nancy Turner

May

Maus
by Art Spiegelman


Housekeeping
by Marilynne Robinson

April

These Is My Words
by Nancy Turner


The Myth of You and Me
by Leah Stewart

March

Inconceivable
by Ben Elton


Songbook
by Nick Hornby


Follies
by Ann Beattie


Hungry Planet

February

About a Boy
by Nick Hornby


High Fidelity
by Nick Hornby


Stargirl
by Jerry Spinelli

January

Revolutionary Road
by Richard Yates


Morality for Beautiful Girls
by Alexander McCall Smith


A Long Way Down
by Nick Hornby


How to be Good
by Nick Hornby


Mere Christianity
by C. S. Lewis

December
Click here for a free Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon

Good Faith
The Know-It-All
by A. J. Jacobs

Good Faith
Endurance
by Alfred Lansing

November
Good Faith
The Secret Life of Bees
by Sue Monk Kidd

September

Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini


The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck

August

Freedom of Simplicity
by Richard Foster


Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen

July

Celebration of Discipline
by Richard J. Foster

Peace Like A River
Peace Like A River
by Leif Enger

Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe

Gap Creek
Gap Creek
by Robert Morgan

June
Life of Pi
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel

My Name is Asher Lev
My Name is Asher Lev
by Chaim Potok

A Prayer for Owen Meany
A Prayer for Owen Meany
by John Irving

All New People
All New People
by Anne Lamott

May
Patrimony
Patrimony: A True Story
by Philip Roth

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters
by J. D. Salinger

Good Faith
Good Faith
by Jane Smiley

Cradle and Crucible
Cradle and Crucible History and Faith in the Middle East
by National Geographic Society

April
Saturday
Saturday
by Ian McEwan

Blue Shoe
Blue Shoe
by Anne LaMott

Emma
Emma
by Jane Austen

Operation Shylock
Operation Shylock
by Philip Roth

March
Jane Austen: A Life
Jane Austen: A Life
by Claire Tomalin

To See and See Again
To See and See Again
by Tara Bahrampour

Reading L0l1ta in Tehran
Reading L0l1ta in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi

February
A Thomas Jefferson Education
A Thomas Jefferson Education
by Oliver Van Demille

Still Alive
Still Alive
by Ruth Kluger

The Screwtape Letters
Not The Germans Alone
by Isaac Levendel

Still Alive
World War II: A Photographic History
by David Boyle

The Screwtape Letters
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis

Persuasion
Persuasion
by Jane Austen

January
Climbing Parnassus
Climbing Parnassus
by Tracey Lee Simmons

With the Old Breed
With The Old Breed
by E. B. Sledge

All But My Life
All But My Life
by Gerda Weissmann Klein

We Die Alone
We Die Alone
by David Howarth