The List Maker by Blake Madden
My rating: 4/5 cats
this book took me by surprise. this is another mcnally jackson find, and one which a certain tomato tried to talk me out of adding to my already-too-big stack, but i assured her it was only $8.95, and that is practically free! and i am really glad i bought it, because i can’t order it into the store, and it was a sweet and simple story that may or may not have made my eyes leak a little.
but i may have just had tired eyes from all the annotating i had to do.
nah, i will own up. i cried ONE native-american-confronting-litterbugs tear. i did. it is such a small book, there isn’t much room for a ton of content, but the characters, their relationship, the puzzle-piece way their quirks fit together—it is very affecting.
i myself am a maker of lists. i have at least seven different notebooks whose purposes blur together, but each one has a different mood, and causes distinctly differently-toned lists to emerge. crazy?? a little. i am not as listy as johns is in this book (that is not a typo), but i do feel better if i can look at a list: of groceries, of books to get, of things to do, of people to email…it makes my manic life more manageable. this is something of a cautionary tale for me, but it also has that “independent movie starring joseph-gordon levitt” feel to it which is cheeky and sweet and quite moving.
see, asshole(s)?? i have feelings.
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