Saturday, October 11, 2003

I’m having the greatest difficulty getting into The Secret Life of Bees, gentle reader, and I’ve read and reread the first few pages at least three times now. I’m not quite sure why it’s so tough to get into, especially since the cover looks and feels so pleasant.

So I switched to Life of Pi, and things have been smooth sailing ever since. Yann Martel, the back cover tells me, worked as a dishwasher, security guard, and a tree planter. Call it ignorance, call it snootiness, but I would’ve never pegged the last security guard I saw a writer. And I am duly rebuked. Martel’s prose is so charming, so electric, that the 300-something pages are going to be a guaranteed pleasure.