"American Pastoral" by Philip Roth

A couple of days ago I finished reading this book. It only took me a few days to read as I was completely drawn in the story. It's still haunting me.

The main character, Seymour Levov, nicknamed "the Swede" for his Scandinavian looks by his friends seems to have the perfect life. He himself looks like the embodiment of everything that is "American": he is tall, good looking, athletic, very popular in his town, the heir of a prosperous business, "does his bit" for a couple of years as a Marine, gets to marry a former Miss New Jersey, has a beautiful daughter he adores and a lovely old house in the Country. From the outside it looks as if the Swede has it all. But, in the summer of 1968 his daughter, disgusted by the conduct of the USA in Vietnam and horrified by "the System" detonates a bomb in the local post office that kills an innocent bystander.
That bomb shatters to pieces the life of the Swede.
"A sliver off the comet of the American chaos had come loose and spun all the way out to Old Rimrock and him."
Roth, masterfully goes back in time and with a flowing prose mixed with clever flashbacks tells us all about the inner, secret life of the Levovs as a family.
The story snakes through two important decades in American life, from the Vietnam War to the Watergate scandal, where the plot itself reaches its climax.

Roth poses so many important questions in this book: are people what they seem? Are we capable of understanding the people around us? Even the ones we think we know well? How much input do we actually have in the life of our children? How much strength and restraint should we exercise when dealing with others? Is it possible to cling to good old fashioned values in a world that is rapidly changing? And what values are they anyway?
I found myself questioning my own motives and reasoning many times as I was reading this book.
Completely electrifying, compelling and insightful.
Masterfully, elegantly and sensitively written.
I will certainly be reading more books by Roth. I guess I came to discover him quite late but I am so happy I finally did.
I do recommend it but be ready to be thrown around like a rag doll emotionally speaking!

Trees

This is the Canal in Hythe where my brother and I have been jogging in the last couple of weeks.
It's very peaceful, especially in the morning where the only people around are a few sleepy faces walking their dogs and the postman.
Ipod on shuffle in my ears, wonderful surroundings and my brother cracking the whip like a real personal trainer, and off we go jogging for about an hour. Him, with a stony face, looking ahead, breathing properly and pushing on. Me, complaining and moaning all the way!
Couldn't resist going back and taking a couple of shots of those beautiful trees with all those shapely branches.

"Herzog" by Saul Bellow

I just finished "Herzog" a few days ago and it's now in the list of my favorite books of all times.
Written by Saul Bellow in the '50s, it deals with the life of a man called Moses Herzog who is going through a middle life crisis.
At the brink of a second divorce as his beautiful but heartless wife has decided to live with Moses's one legged best friend instead taking away their precious little daughter, Herzog is quickly losing his brilliant academic mind to depression and anxiety. He writes long letters to a long and improbable list of people but never sends them.
The letters act a bit as a stream of consciousness where we see the sad circles his mind is caught in. And your hearts breaks as the sadness and disorientation seem to ooze through the pages.
The plot is actually rather thin.
Everything happens in Herzog's mind.
There are a lot of flashbacks where we have a glimpse of his brilliant life as a Jewish professor before the depression set in.
We encounter some really weird characters along the way. Valentine Gersbach being the vilest of them all. He was so horrible it was almost funny.

We read of a very well educated man, with a sensitive mind, slowly losing it as he loses everything he holds dear. All his knowledge of philosophy, literature, poetry, logic, politics, history are just not enough to help him make sense of himself.
Bellow takes us through the whole spectrum of human emotions in the nutshell of one man.
There are some great lines, great insights into human behavior through a great attention to detail.
I highly recommend it. If you've ever been depressed, sad or lost, you'll understand.
It's not about what you are, what you know, where you are, what you have.
It's about how you choose to see yourself and the people around you, and how much strength you're willing to put into it.
I will certainly be reading more of Saul Bellow's books!

Sink.

I've been seeing these beautiful Art Deco taps for a few months. There's not been one occasion, while I've been brushing my teeth or washing my face that I haven't thought about how beautiful they are. The shiny brass, the fullness of it, the beautiful writing and the date on them make me think of all the hands that have used them before me in such different periods of the last century. What did those people think about as they were brushing their teeth back then? Possibly a lot of the things I think about today nearly a century later, and possibly very different more worrying things. I think that these taps are a bit like a window on the past. I'm so glad I get to see them as soon as I wake up and just before I go to sleep.

So.
Guess what? You probably know already.
I've just been told that those taps are new! Being massed produced right now.
I refuse to believe it.
I cling to my romantic notion of a world gone by brought about by their form and presence.
Silly I know.

Blue Sky and Sea.

We've been blessed with a beautiful day of glorious sunshine.
Heading for the beach with family and friends for a walk along the beach and a blue bubble gum ice lolly seemed like the most sensible thing to do!

Natural History Museum.

We took our little girl for a trip to the Natural History Museum in London, to see the dinosaurs and the blue whale. I just had to take some photos of the beautiful building in the German Romanesque style. It's so stunning. My husband had to literally drag me away from it!