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Borrowed 7/30/21, returned 8/21
Contents loc. 161
Beginning p. 1
Since Faber is Dutch-born, who does the Dutch translations of his novels?
Chapter titles from the last line of the chapter.
Letters in a different font.
USIC is not in x-ray for some reason. Discussion pp. 33 ff.,
Why do they use the KJV of the Bible? Discussion p. 291
Lessons:
1. Don’t separate from a spouse for long periods of time.
2. Don’t try to have serious conversations (where back-and-forth is required and nuance and affect are parts of it) by e-mail.
3.
Genre mash-up:
Scj-fi
Cli-fi
Horror
Suspense
Romance
Love story of a married couple (very rare in the romance genre, whether medieval or contemporary)
Travel / explorer report a la Marco Polo and Jan Huygen
Fantasy / magical realism
Religio-philosophical exploration
Theology v. ethics
Corporate skulduggery thriller
Notes:
Simile
Bible
Egoism
Prick
Why not ask? Why not tell?
Mental illness
A thoughtful narrator who is unreliable about his own motivations, which he thinks are pure altruism for evangelism but in fact are selfish and ego-centric, leaving his wife to face (what turns out to be) the end of the world alone. Though no longer drinking, his alcoholism is in fact untreated.
Jean liked this
—NEW YORK TIMES
—THE NEW YORKER
—RON CHARLES, WASHINGTON POST
—EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL,
within rocket range of David Mitchell.”
—DAVID MITCHELL
—PHILIP PULLMAN
Copyright © 2014 by Michel Faber
Quite a stylist. The small details are almost perfect. For example, “Her body was heavy against him, but he let her settle and tried not to fidget.” p. 12
lunar bright.
“The world looks nicer with man-made lights,”
they seldom missed an opportunity to show kindness to strangers.
A different spelling …. Or an ignorant sign-maker.
Peter,
Beatrice.
Haha
It was perfection.
Haha
And desires and wishes. Or needs. Or hopes.
Haha
She was the one who stopped him coming out with claptrap, curbed his tendency to construct grand theories that encompassed everything.
But it was costing a great deal more than a million dollars to send him alone,
USIC
First of 300+ mentions and it’s not in x-ray for some reason.
post-mortems,
He thought about history, the hidden human anxieties behind momentous events. The tiny trivial things that were probably bothering Einstein or Darwin or Newton
The pilots who bombed Dresden,
unlocking a door labeled KEEP LOCKED AT ALL TIMES.
“I don’t picture it in advance,”
I can’t live through stuff until it happens.
Yes. I prepare and prepare and prepare, but I don’t try to imagine what will happen, exactly how it will go down. That way I move and speak as the circumstances and responses lead, using my preparation to guide me, to give me strength, resilience, direction, focus, and power.
Especially in the small bits, the moment-to-moment unfolding. The general ending is usually as expected, especially when the preparation has been thorough and accurate.
he let her settle and tried not to fidget.
Haha
USIC
Why him and not someone from a church with loads of money and political clout?
duty-free in every sense of that word.
Hahapun
The next entry was indecipherably crossed out. A nasty, intolerant rebuttal of the Muslim message above, most likely, deleted by another Muslim or by the caretaker of the Prayer Room.
Lucy, Lossiemouth. Bring my man back safely.
This was not Gethsemane: he wasn’t headed for Golgotha, he was embarking on a great adventure. He’d been chosen
Alicante.”
They’d done this hundreds of times before. Conversation, genuine unforced conversation, but with the potential to become something much more significant if the moment arose when it was right to mention Jesus.
They were none too bright and not very fascinating.
They were human beings, and precious in the eyes of God.
What had seemed like a grand adventure in the prayer room now bereaved him like a sacrifice.
Dorn to be even know about time zones?
Haha
Haha ouch
He’d not even noticed that NASA had ceased to exist.
Haha
screening interviews.
