Bitter in the Mouth by Monique Truong

I loved Bitter in the Mouth.  Linda Hammerick grows up in Boiling Springs, NC, but she is an alien.  There is always something different about her, and she never quite fits in.

For one thing, Linda is a synesthete; she tastes words.  "My first memory was a taste.  For most of my life I have carried this fact with me not as a mystery, which it still is, but as a secret....There was something bitter in the mouth, and there was the word that triggered it"(15).

Here is an example of Linda's hearing/taste condition: 

"When my teacher asked, 'Linda where did the English first settle in North Carolina?' the question would come to me as "Lindamint, where did the Englishmarachinocherry firstPepto-Bismol settlemustard in Northcheddarcheese Carolinacanned peas?" (21).

Synesthesia is not, however, Linda's only difference, and there are mysteries that she doesn't understand about her relationships with her family and the community. 

My favorite character is Linda's Great-Uncle Harper, a retired librarian and one of her two best friends.  Her other best friend is Kelly, with whom she exchanges almost daily letters even at seven years old. 

I love the way Uncle Harper classified his own books:

"His books were shelved in alphabetical order but not by titles.  A for "Acerbic," B for "Buy Another Copy as Gift," C for "Cow Dung, as in This Stinks," D for devastating," E for "Explore Further, F for "Foreign" (foreign meant that my great-uncle couldn't relate to the characters in the book, not that the author was from another country), and so on."  He had, according to Linda, 26 categories!

A beautifully written book with lots of little mysteries about herself and her family that Linda only discovers fully as an adult.  I was surprised the book was only 282 pages, I felt it was so much more!  In the best possible way!

Highly recommended.

Fiction.  Southern Fiction/Coming of Age/ Family Relationships.  2010. 282 pages.

Happy July 4th!

Bookfool is giving away an autographed copy of The Questory of Root Karbunkulus. Check it out here. I'm hoping to continue my winning streak.

Just placed an order with Amazon. I'm so weak. There are stacks of ARCs around here that I've not yet read and a brand new stack from Wednesday's trip to the library, but...

I just had to have this one - Resurrecting Virgil by Dorie LaRue. Why? Well, there are several reasons including some excellent reviews:

"Winner of the Omaha Prize for Novel for the year 2000, selected by Mark Spencer. A modern comic-romance with a generous dollop of Southern Gothic, Resurrecting Virgil will keep readers turning the pages long into the night."
I love good Southern Gothic, and the setting and characters are loosely based on Shreveport and the surrounding areas.

And, of course, I know Dorie. Or knew her...way back when. We worked at the Tech Theater together when we were students at Louisiana Tech in Ruston. She always made me smile, and the last time I saw her, years ago on the LSU-S campus, she was exactly the same: friendly, down-to-earth, vital.

When I had lunch with my friend Thomas the other day, he asked if I knew a Shreveport author named Dorie LaRue. All I could do was grin. I knew Dorie, but didn't know she had written a novel (she has two published works of poetry), and immediately thought of an incident involving a washateria back in Ruston all those years ago.

Oh, yeah. I can't wait to get hold of Resurrecting Virgil.

Southern Grotesque and Twisted Physics

Lisa's recent posts about Flannery O'Connor have renewed my interest. I think I'll add an O'Connor biography to my growing biography list. Here is another O'Connor quote I've had tucked away:

"Everywhere I go I'm asked if I think the university stifles writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them." Pure Flannery!

Maggie's comment on the last post about O'Relatives was funny...until I started thinking about what some of my McRelatives might think of me!

I'm still reading the last of the nonfiction from January and enjoying both books.

Jennifer Oullette's The Physics of the Buffyverse is as much fun as I had hoped, and I'm about half way through. While physics has never been my strong point (that is an understatement of epic proportions), Oullette's combination of everyday language and Whedonist connections makes me pay more attention. She covers interesting aspects of science and the Buffyverse

Some of the topics she discusses include:

porphyria - symptoms of the inherited disease include sensitivity to light and "reddish" mouths. Severe cases may involve disfigurement and "the teeth and gums may become so taut the teeth protrude like fangs." I've read about this before, but interestingly, the show intended Vampirism to be a progressive disease.

invisibility gun - while this idea may not be feasible, Oullette relates "cloaking' schemes" that "rely on the camouflage principle" are an accomplished fact. Susumu Tachi, a real scientist, invented an "invisibility cloak" using computer generated images, and at the University of Pennsylvania, "researchers figured out how to use plasmon coatings as a cloaking device to render solid objects invisible--or nearly so--to an observer.''

centrifugal force - "in reality such a force doesn't exist," explains Oullette, but centripetal force is certainly useful.

Using episodes from Buffy and Angel, The Physics of the Buffyverse puts real science in an interesting format.

BTW - Cocktail Party Physics is the name of her blog.

Freaks and Gargoyles

My head still feels as if it is stuffed with cotten. My fingers aren't operating as efficiently on the keys, but it is a beautiful morning, and there is no headache!

Lisa over at Bluestalking Reader has a great link to a tour of Flannery O'Connor's home. O'Connor is a true Southern Gargoyle. My favorite O'Connor quote:

"When I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it's because we are still able to recognize one."


Gargoyles and Grotesques of the World is the site of Walter S. Arnold, stonecarver. Here is some of his recent work.
A work in progress.