Wait! What? I seem to have jumbled up my last two reads. Two very different genres. Easy guess. The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway, and then the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. You'd have known this sooner had you read my last post too.
*Gallic shrug*
The Old Man's character wasn't easy to connect with initially, neither was Manolin, the eager young kid who tries to help. I never did get how old or how young Manolin really was; old enough to buy alcohol yet young enough to run small errands with no clashing pride or ego. But, as the story is built, one just gets pulled into the sea. The feat performed itself appears superhuman, but doesn't merely elicit ephemeral emotions. As Santiago fights a battle for survival, he is suddenly inundated with prizes that could have been highlights on their own, but had to be let go for the ultimate one. As time passed, I could see myself cheering for him, hoping for something good to happen to Santiago. I knew something tragic could happen too. I prepared for it. A death. But, the eventual turn of events are even more tragic than the protagonist's death itself. Life goes on for us, as it did for Santiago too, but this story will be remembered.
After the sadness of the novella, I found on my Kindle a book I've been wanting to read for a long time. There's no real reason whi I hadn't read it yet. I'd heard of its awesomeness and it didn't disappoint. It was time to read H2G2.
If I was a BuzzFeed writer, I would now be writing "42 Reasons Why You Should Read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". As much cringy as it may sound, I wouldn't regret it. The plot, the characters, the infinite improbability with which science has been played, are all great, but my favourite aspect was the narration, the writing style itself.
The way Adams can keep you reading arbitrarily placed sets characters which make no sense in or out of context makes me wonder if anyone else will ever be able to duplicate such madness. Take this for example:
"One of Zaphod's heads looked away. The other one looked round to see what the first was looking at, but it wasn't looking at anything very much."
And if you were wondering, it sounds just as balderdash even when it's read in context.
I loved H2G2 so much, it's no surprise what I'm going to read next. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Below is an excerpt from H2G2, which also happens to be my favourite passage.
"Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the Galaxy, and it is in order that this situation should not be in any way exacerbated that the following facts will now be revealed in advance.
The planet in question is in fact the legendary Magrathea.
The deadly missile attack shortly to be launched by an ancient automatic defense system will result merely in the breakage of three coffee cups and a mouse cage, the bruising of somebody’s upper arm, and the untimely creation and sudden demise of a bowl of petunias and an innocent sperm whale.
In order that some sense of mystery should still be preserved, no revelation will yet be made concerning whose upper arm sustains the bruise. This fact may safely be made the subject of suspense since it is of no significance whatsoever."