A Different Perspective

I just finished Chris Cleave's Incendiary, which I originally picked up because I was so impressed with his Little Bee. I doubt I otherwise would have so willingly read a book about a woman coping with the loss of her husband and son in a fictional terrorist attack in London had I not held so much faith in Cleave's ability to teach me something new in a way that no one else can, and teach me he did. The entire novel is told from the unnamed narrator's very personal perspective, formatted as a letter begging the terrorists to stop. She tells us exactly how she feels, what she thinks, leaving no detail unmentioned. Cleave writes in stream of consciousness reminiscent of V. Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. She tells us just how grief can paralyze a person, and just how that same person can find the strength to continue on in a world unlike anything she could have ever predicted.

Just like with Little Bee, saying much of anything about the plot of Incendiary would be giving too much away, but I do want to share one of my favorite pieces: "...but you never can squeeze every last bit of pride out of a human being. It's like a tube of toothpaste. You can twist it and you can crush it but there's always a tiny bit left isn't there?" (p. 229).

And I'll end on a final thought, one of the very, very few positive and decent thoughts that Petra, one of our narrator's acquaintances, has to offer: "So be brave" (p. 165).

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Speaking of being brave, I highly recommend checking out Sara Barellies's new album The Blessed Unrest, on which is her newest single "Brave." The video for it is here.  As always, Miss Sara B. has somehow written songs that say what I was thinking three days ago, two weeks ago, the last year, and want to think for the next twenty. I'm considering making one of her lyrics my motto for the upcoming school year as I tackle the grand task of teaching our school's first year of AP Calc, which requires a whole different set of words that I haven't used in about a decade. 

"Show me how big your brave is." :)