A recent near death experience (minor toe fracture) has deprived me temporarily of the use of a foot (yes, singular) and my sudden exile is sending me insane. I am suffering from Cabin Fever and if you’ve ever seen the movie of the same name you will surely realise that things are going to get ugly. Normally I love doing nothing…I have spent many happy hours staring at the Google homepage working my way through a long list of normally absurd and completely unnecessary searches (can a broken toe lead to uncertain death? Has Steve Martin had botox?) but this exile isn’t self-imposed and for once, my Google searches have run dry. The first few days were wonderful…sending my family and friends into minor hysteria…slight exaggeration of toe damage might have occurred (guys, I nearly DIED!) but now…now I’m bored. This kind of boredom - the kind that makes creating and organising a blog entirely around a toe…and not even the biggest toe, seem absolutely inspired…this kind of boredom - is sinister. Somewhere between deciding whether or not to ransack my wardrobe for no good reason (sinister) and arrange my books in order of genre (weird), I decided to actually read one of them - I know, C.R.A.Z.Y. Not so long ago, when I should have been writing a dissertation and my overdraft was buckling under the strain of one too many trips to Costa, I just started buying books in bulk (on play.com everything looks like a steal…free delivery means you can buy twice as much). Until recently, this unfortunate stack of books propped up my laptop and saved it from overheating (next stop: Dragons Den). Well, the tom foolery ends here! After three days of auditions and many tears, I finally decided on The Surrendered by Chang-rae Lee. I studied one of Lee’s novels for my dissertation and his books are truly wonderful. They generally focus on the experiences of Asian Americans, looking at identity crisis and sometimes trauma. This one moves from China in the 1930’s to Korea in the 1950’s and it makes me wish my knowledge of historical events was as good as my knowledge of Costa muffins. What struck me about the novel when it arrived and what I managed to understand when I finally sat down to read it, was the writing on the very back page. There was no blurb, simply ‘read page 29.’ Having the mind of a child, I immediately rushed to page 29 and then I stopped ("you've been here before" I told myself..."it's ok, step away from the page".) When I did eventually get to it (for real real), I crumbled. Lee managed to make me whimper after only 29 pages and that’s no easy feat. Not since page 52 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Hedwig’s death) has such an occurrence been recorded. Rowling, you have been bested. Moral of this ramble? I might be wearing a giant velcro shoe but suddenly I‘m not so bored.
I encourage all of you to break a toe, go a little insane and then read a really good book - or just go straight to the book part, your choice.
I encourage all of you to break a toe, go a little insane and then read a really good book - or just go straight to the book part, your choice.
