"He leans against his wheelchair, feeling the cool metal against his back, again bends down the floor. On the floor, he is tracing the shadow of a leaf. It is the leaf of a sugar maple, just beyond his second-floor window, x x x he prefers the hardship of their bedroom, the constant four walls of this illness. x x x He is ill, he accepts that now. x x x Portions of his face have become numb. An ear, his chin, his left cheek. Daily, he prays for pain."
On his early morning commute, Boston businessman Bill Chalmers experiences a breakdown, an unprovoked episode of amnesia, which renders him confused and discombobulated. As a result he becomes a homeless man and beaten, almost to death. When he wakes up, he is in a hospital and the doctors have no explanation as to what happened to him. He goes home to his family but slowy experiences numbing on his body starting from his fingertips and gradually to most parts of his body. The doctors still have no explanation but continue to order a battery of tests. He consults a psychiatrist who also has no idea about his illness.
The novel points out the effect of technology on our lives in particular and the society in general. Bill discovers that his wife is having a 'torrid' cyber affair with someone she has never met, and his son succeeds in hacking an AOL site (Yes, this was written when AOL was still the big thing! you know, a billion years ago!). Wonder what Bill will be thinking about blueberry and iPads and iPhones today. The book is riddled with e-mails complete with the typographical errors rampant in today's communication. A distracting point is the protagonist's allusion to "The Last Days of Socrates", and I can only guess that it is an allusion to the growing estrangement he feels with his son as he sinks deeper into paralysis.
What the book tells us is we can send instant messages halfway around the globe; why, we even watch the people on the space station as they do repairs and experiments; how we have advanced so much with our technology but it came with a prize: physical sufferings that are yet to be convincingly recognized or diagnosed; internet relationships that nullify the importance of human contact and interaction, among other things. And we call all of it advancement.
-o0o-
in the mid-1990's, i was diagnosed as suffering from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and it took two years to convince the insurance company that it was indeed CTS. a special keyboard was ordered for me but i didn't have time to learn to use it and it made life frustrating for everyone. taking off two years with only a minimal of computer use made the affliction to regress and hopefully there would be no recurrence. on my laptop there is a special program called 'dragon speak' where i talk to a microphone and the program recognizes my voice and it types what i say. the only cool thing about technology that is directly beneficial to me.
it is a very good book, and very well written, but it could get quite tedious and you might slow down; when you do, you might not want to come back to it. the first time i read this i got through to three quarters of the way but a more appealing book came along and it was easily forgotten. two years ago, i re-read it again from the beginning and that was the only time i finally got it.
if this post appears to be haphazardly written, it is because it is haphazardly written. i am sleepy and must go now. i will catch up with everyone's posting tomorrow. good night!
"Catch 22" is showing at Danielle Greenwood's album -
http://365project.org/danig/365. check it out.
at least your CTS is from something you enjoy doing. thank you, howard. and congrats again for that beautiful photo you posted yesterday. well deserved!
@cscecil - awwww! thanks, CS. you are so kind. i might want to cry now.
@danig - i've read this novel only once a long time ago. i'm thinking of reading it again and do a more comprehensive review and post it on my blog, what say you? well, probably not on my blog, maybe we do a joint blog of strictly book reviews, why don't we? :-)