remiss

I am about to embark on an odyssey of attempting to sleep, but I should briefly mention my most recent reading.

1-Stephen King-Pet Sematary. It's known as being a terrifying book, and at parts it certainly lives up to that. But for me it's one of the best examples of King's real genius, which is capturing real, pure human emotion in such a way that the reader leaves the book actually having experienced the emotional depth of the characters. Here, it's more successful than ever, which is particularly astonishing given that the main subjects, grief and dread, are two of the hardest to capture without personally experiencing them. I really think a lot of the power of King's writing gets lost in all the "horror" and the film remakes.

2-JD Salinger-Nine Stories. While I was really not a fan of Catcher in the Rye, I decided to give this collection a shot. Turns out I was correct in doing so. When he gets less long-winded and limits himself to a few dozen pages, Salinger can spin out some truly incredibly snapshots. Not all of the way through yet, but my favorite so far is probably "For Esme--With Love and Squalor."