Surprises Archives - Bob on Books

Two recent reads that were pleasant surprises.

I like to choose the books I read. Most of the time I make good choices. By this time in life, I should know…I think.

Recently, I was reminded of the delight when a book comes your way that you didn’t choose–and you really like it.

Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt was a birthday gift from my son. I do like crime fiction, some more than others. I’d never heard of Blunt. I discovered that all the things of great crime fiction were there–interesting lead characters with their own sorrows and demons, an investigation that is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, a truly evil antagonist with heightening tension. All of this was combined with deft writing that evoked mental images of place, and individual scenes. I was pleased to learn that there were five more in this series featuring detectives Cardinal and DeLorme.

The other was a book chosen for me in LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer giveaways. One of the books that came my way was Bill Harrison’s Making the Low Notes. I’m reading it right now. Harrison is a bass player, the big string bass instruments that are the foundation of a jazz ensemble. Harrison makes the process of learning to play the bass, discovering jazz, playing gigs with quartets, and becoming increasing sought after in the Chicago music scene, a fascinating story. I loved reading about the first time he listened to Miles Davis’ Kinda Blue, one of the greatest of all jazz albums, and listened to bassist Paul Chambers. Last night, I listened to Kinda Blue with a whole new level of attention to the bass part.

Like most readers, I can fall into ruts–reading my favorite writers, favorite genres. Ruts can get dull. I wonder at times if we can become dull as well. I think my son’s mission in life is to get me out of ruts. He has exposed me to graphic literature, more non-fiction than fiction, to writers like Blunt, and even some great baseball books by writers I was not acquainted with. Having someone in your life who does that is a gift. As I blog and review, I’ve been blessed by others who have done this as well. I discovered the Redwall fantasies of Brian Jacques this year through such a recommendation, and it has been like a second childhood! I think of a publicist who always throws in an extra book or two beyond what I’ve requested–no clinkers in the bunch! If you don’t have someone like that, find a good bookseller or librarian who gets to know you and can connect you with books out there you might like but didn’t know about.

Good surprises that lead to finding new books to love and authors to follow is like finding a new restaurant with great food–one that keeps you coming back to try the whole menu. Actually, just thinking about surprises has me wanting to call my favorite bookseller to ask if he will surprise me with a recommendation based on what he’s seen and what he knows about me. Does that sound like fun?

Have you had this happen? You wanted a story to end a certain way, or you hoped it would. And it didn’t. Maybe it was something you didn’t want. Or maybe it was a surprise, like “I never saw that coming…”

How did you react? Did you throw the book across the room? Vow never to read another book by that author?

This happened to me recently. I just didn’t see the ending coming, and let’s just say, it was not what I was hoping for. I found myself going back and reading the key ending passage again, just to be sure I hadn’t misread it. And I just stopped.

And I realized afresh the reality of the reader’s relationship with the author (except in children’s “choose your own adventure” stories). The author gets to tell the story their way–or however they find the story writing itself–as is sometimes the case.

I sat with the ending for a while. Turned it over in my mind. I realized that there was something truer and richer that occurred than if it would have ended as I hoped. It was also more real to the broken conditions of human life and the arc of the story.

I found myself admiring the mastery of the author who pulled together strands of the plot and characters in ways that surprised me, disturbed me, and made me think afresh about the human condition at its worst and best. I found myself glad that the author didn’t just make me happy.

And I found myself thinking about our stories. We want them to turn out happy. We pray our lives go “smoothly”–a favorite word I find people (and myself) using in our prayers. Yet life doesn’t always go this way. Sometimes, things go badly sideways in an instant. And sometimes a choice “against the grain” plays itself out over years in pain and heartbreak–a nursed grudge or jealousy, a habit over which we lose control.

Perhaps in the end, what is better is not a happy end but a good one. How is that possible? All I have figured out is trusting the Author of our lives at whatever point we find ourselves. Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache teaches all his officers four statements that actually make a lot of sense in this regard:

“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I don’t know. I need help.”

I don’t think this will result in a “smooth” life, but rather one lived “with the grain” of how our life’s Author would write our story.