Properties of Thirst
By Marianne Wiggins
517 pages
What’s it about?
Marianne Wiggins has been a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and The National Book Award. Her prowess as a writer is on full display in this sprawling novel set in the California desert during World War II. Rocky Rhodes lives on his California ranch with his twin children, Stryker and Sunny, where he equally mourns the loss of his wife Lou and fights against the L.A. water company (that has siphoned off most of the water that once kept the valley livable). Once the bombs land at Pearl Harbor a great fear of Japanese Americans arises on the West Coast. Soon Rocky must adjust to Manzanar- a Japanese internment camp that is being built across the road. “Schiff estimated that there would be “ten thousand” but the mind resists that number: the mind transforms that number to a cipher with no face. Yet here they were, busloads of them, silent and confused, transported only with the things they carried in their arms and pasteboard luggage; their memories. “What did it make me think about?
Our thirst for connection- “Who starts out as a child- starts out in life- thinking Death will end up to be our best teacher? Right up there with Love, Rocky had learned.”Should I read it?
Oh my! This is a book to be savored. It was a reading experience for me. Sometimes uneven- but always beautiful. “You can’t save what you don’t love, but sometimes –most times- you can’t save what you love, regardless.” The cadences Marianne Wiggins wrote into this book were so intriguing. Some pages just flew by, and some passages and pages slowed you down to a crawl. Somehow this just adds to the reading experience. So many beautiful passages. Then- when you read in the afterward the story of the book… Well it is just an incredible feat of determination that we all are able to enjoy this book all the way to the end. One of my absolute favorites this year is “Properties of Thirst”. This book is big, complicated, lyrical, demanding, and I cannot wait to discuss it with another reader.Quote-
“Where do I begin?- not to tell a story, that’s the easy part, a story starts with some first words, or with a datable event- I was born. We went to war. She died. -but where do I- and you- or anyone- begin? The past is much more mesmerizing than the future: the future will reveal itself, regardless, but the past is made to disappear….What’s it about?
Marianne Wiggins has been a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and The National Book Award. Her prowess as a writer is on full display in this sprawling novel set in the California desert during World War II. Rocky Rhodes lives on his California ranch with his twin children, Stryker and Sunny, where he equally mourns the loss of his wife Lou and fights against the L.A. water company (that has siphoned off most of the water that once kept the valley livable). Once the bombs land at Pearl Harbor a great fear of Japanese Americans arises on the West Coast. Soon Rocky must adjust to Manzanar- a Japanese internment camp that is being built across the road. “Schiff estimated that there would be “ten thousand” but the mind resists that number: the mind transforms that number to a cipher with no face. Yet here they were, busloads of them, silent and confused, transported only with the things they carried in their arms and pasteboard luggage; their memories. “
What did it make me think about?
Our thirst for connection-
“Who starts out as a child- starts out in life- thinking Death will end up to be our best teacher? Right up there with Love, Rocky had learned.”
Should I read it?
Oh my! This is a book to be savored. It was a reading experience for me. Sometimes uneven- but always beautiful. “You can’t save what you don’t love, but sometimes –most times- you can’t save what you love, regardless.” The cadences Marianne Wiggins wrote into this book were so intriguing. Some pages just flew by, and some passages and pages slowed you down to a crawl. Somehow this just adds to the reading experience. So many beautiful passages. Then- when you read in the afterward the story of the book… Well it is just an incredible feat of determination that we all are able to enjoy this book all the way to the end. One of my absolute favorites this year is “Properties of Thirst”. This book is big, complicated, lyrical, demanding, and I cannot wait to discuss it with another reader.
Quote-
“Where do I begin?- not to tell a story, that’s the easy part, a story starts with some first words, or with a datable event-
I was born.
We went to war.
She died.
-but where do I- and you- or anyone- begin? The past is much more mesmerizing than the future: the future will reveal itself, regardless, but the past is made to disappear….
