The Cider House Rules

So I finally finished The Cider House Rules, after months and months.  It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy it – it was a just a damn long book.  And I did very much enjoy it – the story is a little different than the movie version based on the book.  In the book, Homer and Candy actually have a child, and the story takes place over many more years.  Plus there’s a whole heck of a lot more detail.  John Irving is a great storyteller, and the last third of the book I had trouble putting it down.  I liked the theme of rules  - society’s rules, our own personal rules that we live by, and hold others to.  Do rules guide us in determining what’s right or what’s wrong?  Or are they simply an excuse to take the easy way out?  To keep us safe in our little cocoons and avoid making the tough decisions ourselves?  Rules make us feel safe.  And  it’s easy enough to disregard the ones that we determine don’t apply to us, when convenient.

Hmm, anyways, sounds like I may need something a little lighter and more humorous for my next book, doesn’t it?–I’m thinking about Nature Girl by Carl Hiassen.

And finally, I will bestow the following honor on The Cider House Rules:

Best book I’ve read with way too much pony penis imagery

Babes in the woods

Well, while Larisa’s off gallivanting on her Caribbean cruise, I’ve been diligently reading away!  I’m still reading the Cider House Rules – it’s funny because it seems like I read this every night and I just never make any progress.  Probably because the print is so damn tiny and the book is so so long.  But I’m enjoying it.  It gets pretty graphic in its description of abortions and other medical procedures – and please… enough with the pony penis already!!

Bonus side rant – semi-related: Lately I’ve been a little troubled about the inability of popular media (really, popular films) to even mention abortion as a viable option for an unwanted pregnancy.   Like Knocked Up.  Or Juno.  Or that new Jennifer Lopez movie, not that I’ve seen it.  It’s just weird to me, since abortions aren’t especially unusual in this country, ya know what I mean?  Why can’t it even be mentioned in our popular culture, when obviously it’s happening?

Anyways, I digress.  So I’ve started reading another book, that is coincidentally also about pregnancies, wanted and otherwise:  The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.  In this story, abortion doctors are executed for the ‘evil’ acts they perform and women have become baby-making machines, in a fascist state fueled by religious zealotry.  Hmm, well, hopefully that’s not the path we’re on here in this country, heh!  It’s quite a story, and I have a hard time putting it down – this is the first book I’ve read by Atwood, and I anticipate reading many more.

Larisa, get any reading in during your vacay??