Phoebe Eats Dinner!
I haven’t posted pictures of myself eating in awhile. I’m sure you guys have been mourning the loss! Well, it’s an easy enough error on my part to correct. For your enjoyment: Friday’s dinner!
A chicken leg from the rotisserie lemon pepper chick from Ward’s, and a salad with green leaf lettuce, arugula, plum tomatoes, red pepper, pineapple, and blue cheese.
I love pineapple! It’s probably my favorite fruit, beating out even my other favorites–blueberries and strawberries.
Nom nom nom.
Posted on Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 1:37 pm. 4 Comments
Goodreads Review: Pepperland
rating: 5 of 5 stars
In one of my college creative writing workshops, my instructor (a pretty well-known poet) told the class that he didn’t think that it was ever possible for a writer to convincingly write from the other gender. I scoffed at that then–Jennifer Roberson’s wonderful narrator Tiger from the Sword-dancer series immediately came to mind–but since then I’ve realized that the number of writers who even undertake such a challenge, not to mention the number who succeed (I’m looking at you, John C. Wright), is fairly low.
Mark Delaney is one of those few male writers who manages to not only tackle a female voice, but successfully tackle an adolescent female voice, to boot. Though I was initially drawn to Pepperland because of the Beatles-connection, I quickly realized that the presence of song titles and Beatles’ trivia was just window dressing for a really involving character study. Star is so strongly and believably written that I checked the cover several times to make sure that Delaney was not, in fact, female. Her story is at times angsty and ego-centric, but very convincingly so. Delaney never seems to look down on Star for her emotional outbursts but also manages not to dismiss them as “typical.” The best word for his portrayal of her would be “compassionate.”
What’s more, Delaney seems to know high school, and the strangely small, self-contained universe of adolescence, really well. The novel takes place in California in the early nineteen eighties, but the details are universal–in my mind, it could have easily been set in my own high school in New Jersey at the turn of the millennium. Though there are a couple stray details that mark this as a period piece, the archetypal quality of the characters should help it to feel relevant to modern teenagers.
Finally, the supporting characters are equally well-rendered, particularly the supporting female characters. There’s a strong feminist undercurrent here–Star’s greatest success is in securing an apprenticeship to a tough-as-nails guitar repair woman, and through their friendship (rather than, say, through her romantic relationship) she’s able to resolve some of her lingering grief over the recent death of her equally self-sufficient mother. Delaney’s never preachy about this, which is probably for the best. Star doesn’t question her own independence or abilities, which is part of what makes her character–and this book–so remarkable.
I got a new camera!
As a graduation gift from Jordan’s brother and father, I received a Nikon d40 when I was home this past week. I can’t wait to become obsessive about taking pictures again.
Said totally awesome amazing camera allowed me to take pictures of the monumental graduation of my monumental fiancé. I’m so proud of him. Of both of us, in fact. As the totally awful speaker at his graduation said, “It’s like we’re now, officially, really adults!”
Posted on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 2:20 pm. 2 Comments
About Phoebe
Phoebe North is a 26-year-old writer originally from the fantastic (and possibly mythical) land of Central New Jersey. She currently lives in northern Virginia with her husband, her cat, a ukulele, and a comically large television. Though she doesn't put much stock in astrology, she, like most Capricorns, is stubborn, hard-working, and resourceful, and she dislikes ignominy and ridicule--though she suspects that most people dislike ignominy and ridicule, anyway.