book club session

This may be a good way to have a book club. Anyone who has comments- whether you have read the book or not- please speak! The book of the blog: The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

In the end, I feel truly sorry for the dictator. For those of you who saw The Fog of War about McNamara (Fog of War), you may know what I mean. Although these guys were very different- the Patriarch being illiterate, a commoner, a general and McNamara being a sharp, well-educated, witty man- in the end, they both do horrible things to people on a large scale, and when you look inside, they are sad, old men.

This is a story on a more personal scale. There was a professor (let’s call him M.) in my department who was known to be quite the jerk- yelling at people when he felt like it, harassing the girls, just overall moody and arrogant. Once we had a visiting speaker, and M. invited us to his lab for lunch. They ordered pizzas, and he laid out a row of fruits and vegetables, which was apparently his customary lunch. And as everyone was talking, he would peel and cut the fruits and vegetables and offer them to the people next to him. He was in his older years at this point, and this gentle gesture, this fatherly gesture, it really got to me. And what finally did me in was watching him eat- chewing his food softly and slowly like an old man, his jaws moving side to side, softly grinding away, in no hurry. He ended up an old man, and his bitterness had faded, leaving his kindness more evident. And now whenever anyone brings him up in conversation, I come to his defense with this story.

The problem is, you know these guys can’t be pardoned just because they are- themselves- vulnerable and weak, just because sometimes they yell out at people to cover their fear or insecurities or whatever. They still are guilty for what they’ve done, but I guess this evil side comes from the same basic human fears that we all relate to. And in The Autumn of the Patriarch, you just feel with this guy who does crazy things for his mother and for his one love, this woman who taught him to read and eat properly at the table. And at the end, he dies alone- lonely and sad.

I could go on, but I guess here’s a good spot to stop. There will be more about this, I'm sure.