read 2026

Bitter men beget bitter gods beget bitter disasters. Very loose for me plot-wise, with many digressions but they weren't unwelcome. Such a thoroughly textured, lived world and Achebe isn't going to sit and explain too much just because you don't get it. Such colorful idioms it blew me away.

¿Vos sabés quién sos? Heartbreaking, heartwarming, devastating and delivering. The depths of human depravity can only be overmatched by strength of spirit and relentless resolve that are also so core to being a person. This book maintains a strong pace and yet is detailed enough to show exactly how the gears of fascism grind away at the minds of a population to the point where a bunch of un-uniformed thugs can just bundle a person into a car and make them disappear- and a street full of witnesses will never speak of it. I am also impressed at the creativity it takes to effectively topple a regime by simply showing up every Thursday and marching arm-in-arm. The sheer force of will it takes to effectively browbeat the international scientific community into connecting you with somebody willing (and able) to revolutionize genetics is awe-inspiring. I could probably rant for longer, but it wouldn’t do the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo justice. They are still finding the Desaparecidos, and yet more of their children may not know who they are.

Excellent. Sometimes I even thought I should learn some of this Latin stuff. Mr. Miller wrote some really killer sentences that I sometimes had to just sit and think about for a couple of minutes, which is my favorite type of author and it really is a shame that this is one his only works that ventured beyond short story and that he struggled following up. Of the three stories, I think the first is the weakest ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ but Fiat Lux more than makes up for it. Biting commentary both against and for strict Catholicism. I think the discussion at the end about mercy killing/suicide/murder is especially poignant coming from an author who was Catholic and also clearly struggling. "Men must fumble awhile with error to separate it from truth, I think- as long as they don't seize the error hungrily because it has a pleasanter taste."