Tuesday, September 30, 2008

A Wondrous Novel


I just finished reading ‘The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao’ by Junot Diaz last night. (Just in case you’re not down with the literary world, this novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 2008.) This post is to emphatically beg you to go to the bookstore, hop on Amazon, or go your library and get this book. Why? Quite simply this novel is the bomb diggity. The shiz-nizzle. A freaking modern masterpiece that is on the same realm as ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, except Diaz’s prose isn’t nearly as turgid as Marquez. Just as Salinger accurately imitated the slang of the 50’s in ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, Diaz has at the very least equaled the master by completely nailing the lingo of my generation. Most writers overreach on this point, thereby placing an unnecessary albatross on the narrative in their desire to be linguistically clever. But not here.

From the title you can infer that there will be no happy ending. Diaz weaves his story of a cursed Dominican family with crisp, snappy sentences. Not one word, sentence or paragraph is superfluous; Diaz has crafted a masterpiece that could be the archetypal blueprint for ‘Zen and the Art of Writing’. Everything has its place here, due in large part to his liberal use of footnotes. But don’t think the footnotes are simply following in the footsteps of Dave Eggers or David Foster Wallace. The footnotes in here help to elucidate the history of the Dominican Republic, therefore keeping the narrative flowing like a song from Motown.

I am thankful to my mother-in-law for two reasons here. First, she introduced me to Diaz by giving me his first book ‘Drown’ (an absolutely epic collection of short stories) about 3 years ago. When I heard his first novel was coming out last year before Christmas, I knew it would make a great gift. Since then I have searched in vain at the library and 2nd hand bookshops to find a copy. For damn near a year I have wanted to read this book, and let me tell you the wait was worth it. I was almost sad when I finished this book. For 5 days I had the pleasure of reading a masterpiece, and to know that I would not be experiencing it’s magic again for the first time just depressed me. Truly, this book rocks the casbah. Get it. Read it. Love it. And support a truly talented artist that will one day be mentioned in the same breath as Fitzgerald, Faulkner and Hemingway.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Kangaroo Island
















This weekend marked the first time I had left New South Wales and traveled to a different state here in Australia. Veronica had been in South Australia for the week on a job, so we decided last minute to buy a ticket so I could fly out on Friday to meet Veronica in Adelaide.

Our destination was Kangaroo Island, about 2 hours South of Adelaide by car and ferry. The drive from Adelaide to Cape Jervis was simply awesome. Rolling, green hills falling into the ocean reminded me of photos of the Scottish Highlands. Before arriving at the ferry we stopped at a Wind Farm right on the coast. Simply incredible how hugantic those beasts are! After a 45 minute ferry ride we landed on Kangaroo Island. Drove off the ferry and literally 3 minutes later we arrived at our B&B. What a cool little island. Actually, it isn’t really that little. The island is quite narrow in parts, but it is pretty long from the East end to the West end. Apparently it is the 3rd largest island in Australia behind Tasmania and another island I have since forgotten the name of. Having arrived late afternoon we threw our bags inside and went and had dinner at the Penneshaw Hotel pub. Veronica and I have never been so impressed by pub food. Actually, every single meal we had on the island was delicious. Must be due to the fact that they try and use all local produce since the island is such a fertile place. After dinner we took a brief walk down to the beach and we stumbled upon a Wallabie. It had been a long day for both of us, so we went back to the B&B and promptly passed out.

Saturday morning we started early, getting in the car by 7:30 to head off to Kingscote, the largest town on the island. Grabbed a coffee and we then headed to Seal Bay National Park. The park is situated right there on the ocean, and it was cold! The microclimates on the island were freaky. Where we were staying on the North East end was sunny and dry, where as the Southern side of the island was cloudy, windy and occasionally rainy. Ended up taking a tour so we could go hang out with the Sea Lions on the beach. Since we only had one full day we were in constant motion. We next stopped to pick up a sandboard on our way to Little Sahara. I would love to tell you all that both V and I were poetry in motion carving up the sand dunes, but that would be a dirty lie. My first ride I hit my keester so hard I had trouble sitting the rest of the weekend. AWESOME! After finally brushing off all the sand we went and had lunch at the general store at Vivonne Bay. Tasty burgers. We then drove down to Vivonne Bay Beach, and wow, freaking nice beach. Apparently it was voted/named the best beach in Australia, but I don’t know who voted. Very cold, but it would be an awesome place to spend the day in the summer. From the beach we drove to Flinders National Park to see two major tourist attractions. First up were the Remarkable Rocks. Perched on a cliff above the Southern Ocean, these rocks had been carved out by the wind for thousands of years. Very cool, and yes, remarkable. Saw an insane, slabbing wave breaking underneath the cliff that looked positively scary. On the way back to the car we saw an echidna (Australian porucpine). Next was the Admiral’s Arch, where a huge colony of New Zealand sea lions hang out. By this time it was late afternoon and the weather was getting a bit nasty. Windy, rainy and cold, we practically ran to the attractions, took pictures and ran back to the car. Luckily, we finally saw some kangaroos that were alive on the drive back. Veronica and I were beginning to think that the only roos on the island were the road kill that dotted every road on the island. On the way back to Penneshaw we stopped at a winery and then traveled to the 3rd town on the island, American River. Yep, this place was named for the American’s that settled there to whale. Pretty, but not that impressive. That night we went to the Italian restaurant in Penneshaw and had a good feed. Driving back to our place we saw a penguin ambling quite nimbly across the road. Passed out early again.

Sunday we made our way to Prospect Hill, where Matthew Flinder’s first viewed the entire island back in 1803. Good views, and it was time to go catch a ferry back to the mainland. Made it back to Adelaide at lunchtime and had a great meal at Austral, a pub on Rundle Street (think of the West End Dallas natives). Our last order of business was to drive into the Adelaide Hills for a scenic tour. Very pretty place, green and lush, vineyards everywhere, and winding roads that were super fun to drive in our nice rental Holden Sport Wagon. I forgot how much fun it was to drive when you have a nice car. No disrespect to the White Chariot of course. Arrived at the airport on time and we got back to Manly a little after 10 pm. It was a great vacation, but it was way too short. Go figure.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Spring



Yes sir, it is Spring time. The frosty days of Winter are a thing of the past now (hopefully). Apologies for the lack of blogging. Work depression combined with a malaise of laziness has thwarted this stinking blog.

Veronica and I enjoyed getting to hang out with Chris and Andrea a week prior. Talk about good timing, they leave Houston in time for 2 big hurricanes to hit their area. We had fun showing them our favorite sites here in Manly. The usual places if you will; Barefoot, Fish Mongers, and the Bavarian.

This past weekend I went down to Bendelong, or Green Island, about 4 hours South of Sydney on a surf trip for the weekend. Fun times, bad weather, but we surfed a real heavy, slabbing left. Yeah, that is where the picture of me looking incredibly kooky is from.

Veronica is in South Australia this week for work. I am flying out on Friday to go meet her for the weekend. Should be a fun time.