Book Corner 2025.6

James

by Percival Everett

SPOILERS AHEAD. I was really disappointed with this, after how great ERASURE was. I couldn’t believe he dropped the parenthood bomb. Can writers really not think of any better way to give their narrative a “point” than to do a great big parenthood reveal? So boring! Plus, the beauty of the original HUCKLEBERRY FINN was how Huck came to see Jim as human through his own experience and moral reasoning. Not because he found out that Jim was his father! That changes his moral epiphany altogether. It becomes all about genetics. Parenthood. Race.

It was also tiresome how there was not single good white character in the whole book, living or dead.

James wonders towards the end whether white people are fighting to free the slaves merely out of “guilt.” What better reason would there be? What more or less does he want?

Profligacy

If Spending Money on Books, Yarn, & Wine Is a Crime, Let Me Be Guilty

We were out & about today. I spent money gratuitously. I bought yarn because I got a hankering (get it hank) to make a yellow-ish scarf because I totally am in danger of freezing to death due to a sore lack of scarves. I bought a book of baking for two because YES I have tons of baking books and YES I have tons of books on cooking for two BUT DID I HAVE A BOOK ON BAKING FOR TWO? NO! I also bought wine.

The Matter with Things, 58%

“That very opposition, sacred versus secular, however, is in itself typically Western. It is a sign of a significant rupture that never existed in the same degree in other cultures, and should never have existed in our own. It is the result of the progressive sequestration of the sacred, whatever is by definition of the highest possible value, from the centre, to its present ghetto on the margins, of Western mental life.” Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things. A humongous tome I am 58% through, but it’s on Kindle, so I have no idea how much of it is footnotes/bibliography, though I suspect quite a bit.

USVI: Food Pix!

The Caribbean Vegatarian Platter at Morgan’s Mango. You got your salad with local greens. Not much local food to be had on the island, but there is a place supplying various restaurants with local greens which are FABULOUS! There are some zesty-mustardy ones in there, but not enough to be overwhelming.

Then you got your beans, and always my favorite part, you got your fried plantains! I had some orange squash in there on the right, a pile of quinoa, a segment of an ear of corn, and looks like I had some cauliflower too.

While there wasn’t much local food around, I wish I had sought it out more and made it more of a priority. One time we DID see a couple of guys with sternos by the side of the road and a chalkboard menu hawking all the Caribbean things you’d expect. Also saw an old man selling some unusual fruit juices. Was always kicking myself for having filled up on nondescript bar offerings.