“Well, the tree grows very slowly and with exhaustive detail.
Couldn’t get through this one. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I could have. And I don’t mean that in the way of a mountain climber who just couldn’t make it to the top and then warps reality by looking back at it. No, it’s more like “couldn’t” as in “I couldn’t eat another hashbrown from my McDonald’s breakfast.” Sure, I COULD have. It just didn’t seem worth the pain.
I get why this book is a classic, I think. My brother and I argue about this all the time. He feels like it’s important to watch a movie like Casablanca because it’s historically significant to the medium of film. He makes the point that without Casablanca, there is no Ghostbusters (okay, he doesn’t point to Ghostbusters, but he should if he ever wants to get any traction with ME). This book is definitely of interest as a historical document. An historical document(?) You know what, I’m not done talking about Ghostbusters, so we better stick with “a historical document.”
The book is excruciatingly detailed about day-to-day life in Brooklyn during the early 1900’s, down to what they had at the candy store. I shit you not, there’s a page and a half describing the purchase of a pickle. The WHY of a pickle purchase. The best practices. The roles played by both seller and buyer. And here I am, enormous pickles in plastic sleeves of juice at every gas station in town.
What I’m saying is, this is a great thing to have as it records what was happening in that time period, and also records the day-to-day life of a family that’s just this side of poor. Not a war, not a huge event. Just what happens at your average Brooklyn pickle place.
So I get why it’s important, but that doesn’t mean I want to read it. My brother would tell you that without Casablanca there is no Ghostbusters, and I can’t disagree with that. But I like Ghostbusters. I don’t like Casablanca. And with books and movies we’re lucky enough to be in an age where there is more good material out there than people can consume in a lifetime. I am wholly convinced that I will never read every book that I would truly enjoy, which is messed up. Really messed up. But it’s true, and that means there’s really no time to waste on something that, though not terrible, just isn’t doing much for me.”