Just finished reading this book and thought I'd share my thoughts.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl deals with a very painful issue in a very creative way. The creative rhetorical juices of the author are insane. However, for me the book was at times funny and mostly annoying. I was mainly annoyed at the needless, constant swearing and cussing throughout. I've always been annoyed at that type of language when used so prolifically for no apparent good reason, just because. It seems to be the default language of teenagers, sadly. I'm glad that I stuck with the book in spite of that.

It's still an insightful read as far as teenagers dealing with real issues are concern. And when it comes to death it doesn't get any more real than that. It's a good peak into the teenage world and mindset. What is it that makes them tick and what makes them click. What is true friendship all about? Maybe the movie is just as good or better. I certainly hope it's funnier. We'll see, no pun intended.

What I liked the most about the book was the capacity for introspection the protagonist, Greg Gaines, has. While he can definitely be boring at times, he has an unusual way of putting his thoughts and observations together which sound entertainingly unique. The result is not as funny as one might have hoped, but it keeps you interested for the most part.

I think the last few chapters of the book bring home the fact that life will dish out some seriously nasty stuff at you and there's little you can do about it. This becomes a serious problem in the teenage years when there is so much turmoil in a kids life. Still the book ends in a hopeful note which was good. It's as if saying "death doesn't have the last word." We, the living, always do.


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Paco de Lucía

Escribí este pequeño poema como elegía al gran Paco de Lucía en ocasión de su muerte en el 2014, 25 de febrero. Espero que les guste y nuevamente, descansa en paz, Paco.

¡Adiós, Paco!
¿Te dejará descansar tu guitarra?
El alma en tus manos.
Flamenco en tus venas.
¡Adiós, Paco!
Descansa en paz.

A Question for the Next President

The man is not perfect, but he has been a remarkable president in many regards. If that is not evident yet for the majority of Americans regardless of party ideology, it will be sometime after he leaves office.

¿Quién soy? por Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Poema escrito en marzo de 1945

Dietrich Bonhöffer fue un prominente teólogo alemán asesinado por los Nazis por su participación en una conspiración contra la vida de Adolf Hitler.

¿Quién soy? Me dicen a menudo

Que salgo de mi celda

Calmado, alegre, firme,

Como un hacendado de su hacienda.

¿Quién soy? Me dicen a menudo

Que suelo hablar con mis carceleros

Libre y amigable y claramente,

Como si estuviera al mando.

¿Quién soy? También me dicen

Que sobrellevo los días de mi infortunio

Ecuánime, sonriente, orgulloso,

Como alguien acostumbrado a ganar.

¿Soy en realidad todo aquello que otros hombres dicen?

¿O soy sólo lo que sé de mí mismo?

¿Inquieto y anhelando y enfermo, como un ave en una jaula,

Luchando por aire, como si unas manos estuviesen apretando mi garganta,

Ansiando por colores, por flores, por las voces de las aves

Sediento de palabras amables, de amistad,

Agitado en espera de grandes eventos

Impotentemente temblando por amigos a una distancia infinita

Cansado y vacío en oración, en pensamiento, en acciones,

Débil, y listo para decirle adiós a todo.

¿Quién soy? ¿Este o el otro?

¿Soy una persona hoy y mañana otra?

¿Soy ambas a la vez? ¿Un hipócrita ante otros,

Y ante mí mismo un despreciable angustiado debilucho?

¿O hay aún algo dentro de mí como un ejército golpeado,

Huyendo en desorden de la victoria ya ganada?

¿Quién soy? Se burlan de mí, estas preguntas solitarias mías.

Quienquiera que sea yo, Tú lo sabes, oh Dios, ¡tuyo soy!

Who am I? by D. Bonhoeffer
Traducción de CSPellot

All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Masterfully and beautifully written historical fiction taking place in the early 1940s as the horrors of the 2nd World War unfold in Europe. This is a fairly long novel (500+ pp.) with short chapters that read very fast. Anthony Doerr is uncanny in his ability to sustain the initially parallel but increasingly interwoven life stories of the two main characters throughout the novel until its climactic moment.

As far as a literary work is concerned, I think that was the one, unique feature of Doerr's prose in All the Light We Cannot See. Coupled with an amazing writing style and powerful gift to create visually poetic images that will stick with you for a long time on the one hand,

"That first peach slithers down his throat like rapture. A sunrise in his mouth." (p. 471),

and viscerally unsettling ones on the other,

"...and disappears in a fountain of earth." (p. 484).

All the Light We Cannot See will break your heart and haunt you after you turn the last page. Two young lives, much too young, thrown into circumstances equally much beyond their control. Providence? Destiny? Luck? It doen't matter what you think of it in the end. The reality is that the effects of war linger far too long after it's over. Even today, if we pay a little attention we might actually get to see 'All the Light We Cannot See.'


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