Archive for the ‘Creative Nonfiction’ Category
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I had a few problems with what was otherwise and interesting, edifying read.
Why, is this me compiling a list of reasons to read or not to read Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson?
So, there’s this guy, Chris “Alex Supertramp” McCandless, and he’s kinda emo, ’cause he overdosed on Tolstoy, Thereau, and London. He’s pissed at his parents (keep in mind that despite my emo reference this IS 1990) so after he graduates, he donates his 24K to charity (money that a relative had left him for his education), cuts off all ties to his family, and lives in the desert. But that’s not enough for him. As I said, he read a lot of London, so he goes to live in Alaska, with a cheap tent and home made sleeping bag, and there he dies.
My brother-in-law bought this book thinking it was a guide to playing chess. He wasn’t wrong, per se. It is about chess, about chess theory, about different moves, with fantastical sounding names. And while you might pick up some new mad skillz, you’d have to be a far better chess player than I, who knows only how to castle and walk the pieces, in order to do so.
Are you Gen X? IF the answer is yes, then you will love this book, and find it hilarious, see yourself mirrored in its image, and pass it on to all of your contemporaries. If the answer is no, because you were born BEFORE Gen Xers, you might giggle at the humor of the book, but more likely, you will wonder about the future of the country and which of your children have done what drugs. If you were born AFTER Gen Xers, you will LOL, see the occasional similarity between your own life and culture and theirs, but mostly wonder what the hell Klosterman is talking about and why anyone should care.
I remember my sister having the first one over fifteen years ago. She was still living at home and going to college, which would make me… Let’s say 8. I wanted to look at them because they were cartoons, and she explained to me that they were about the Holocaust. I tried to read them anyways, but soon grew bored.