I am getting towards the end of Divisadero. This book has taken some serious time and effort to get through. I can’t exactly pinpoint what about it is so difficult. Some of it is that it takes place in several different places in several different eras and has several different narrators. In fact, the narrator sometimes changes from third person to first person, which can be disconcerting.
I don’t know yet where all of the characters are going to wind up. There are still the three main characters: Claire (in CA), Coop (in NV and CA), and Anna (in France). However, some of the other characters (like the dead French author that Anna is researching and Anna’s French-gypsy lover) have begun to feel like main characters because of all the back story. Right now, Claire has an amnesia-stricken Coop, and they are on their way to see the farmer/father. I don’t know what it is all building up to, but I’m excited to find out. Maybe “excited” is overstating it a bit, but I am ready to find out and have the book be done. Maybe the ending of Divisadero will change my mind, but I would recommend reading In the Skin of a Lion rather than Divisadero, if you are going to read just one of Michael Ondaatje’s books.
OTHER READINGS
Old Testament: I’m just past the part where Esau sells his birthright to Jacob (Genesis 25: 29-34) and then Jacob dresses up as Esau to trick Isaac into giving him the father’s blessing (Genesis 27). I know that there are several explanations for Jacob’s obtaining the birthright and blessing by cunning and trickery, but it is still hard to swallow. Next up is the material from Genesis that spawned Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Good times.
In Defense of Food: I just started this book last night. Fascinating stuff. The book is divided into three parts. The first part deals with the history of the food industry. The second part deals with the development of what the author calls the “Western diet” and its relationship to modern diseases. The last part has suggestions for following the book’s mantra: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I like it so far because it is a realistic way to look at eating and disease and the relationship between the two.
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