Joey Anderson > Recent Status Updates

I'm at the end of the Quentin section when he will become was, and even if he cannot perfect his world, his final act will perfect himself.

One of the longer chapters shows Hans and his father struggling to bond on any level, but ultimately they fail miserably. However, it is the only face to face communication Hans has had so far, the others being his recollections and his endless telephone conversations. Although Hans does not quite admit it, he causes his isolation. His relentless sarcasm and criticism towards others doesn’t help him much either.

Zohnerer, Han’s agent, tells him the reason why he can’t find him a job now: “There’s nothing more depressing for people than a clown they feel sorry for.”

Poor Hans. Does anything drive a person more mad than heartbreak? When your romantic other rejects you, what could be worse?

Hans (27) recollects when he was eleven around February 1945 and he called Herbert, his Hitler Youth leader, “You Nazi swine!” With his parents in attendance, local leaders hold a hearing in Hans’ home where his mother abandons him: “‘You can see he doesn’t know what he is doing, he doesn’t realize—if he did, I would have to turn my back on him.’ ‘Go ahead, turn your back,’ I said.”

A third reading: it has always been a favorite since my first time in 1976.

“Then, as she watched, light moved and dark moved; light and shadow went travelling over the hills and over the valleys. A deep murmur sang in her ears--the land itself, singing to itself, a chorus, alone. She lay there listening. She was happy, completely. Time had ceased.”

Kitty achieves her perfect moment; a moment many try to possess, but rarely do.

Rose’s experience of possessing two selves, one past and one present, intrigues.

Rose’s experience of possessing two selves, one past and one present, intrigues.

Only fifty pages to go in this monstrously long novel. I have just finished Phillip II's monologue as he lay dying.

The second part, “The New World,” follows Cortez, in his own voice, as he conquers Mexico and discovers his actual identity as the Plumed Serpent/Quetzalcoatl. Although told in a religious/mythological style, the narrative is quite good if you can tolerate/decipher the language.