What We're Reading Now -- Brian -- The Light of Falling Stars

It starts with a plane crash and is as compelling of a fifty-page beginning to a novel as I've read in a while. Emotionally rich. Human and complicated. The plane crash serves as a catalyst for a handful of characters to start dealing with their own repressed problems.

But then it sort of unravels. Long, kind of dry stretches of internal monologue and thoughts and feelings with the occasional compelling node. A few scenes near the middle that sort of pop up out of nowhere and make very little sense. And then, eventually, these repressed problems the characters are dealing with get resolved....because they, meaning the characters, say so. The characters do something or say something that triggers them to believe that they've resolved their problems.

This may very well be J. Robert Lennon's point. A statement on the human condition...or whatever. Saying, basically, humans are shitty at dealing with things. Once a problem is brought to the surface, there's some grappling, and eventually, it's rationalized away. Shoved under the carpet. A haircut, or a new apartment, and the belief that everything is going to be all better. But no real progress is made.

As an aside: lately I've realized that I don't much care for internal monologue in a book. There are a few writers who do it well, but I think a lot more can be found out about a person by observing what they do, rather than listening to what they think -- and this, to a certain extent, is the case with real people. For example, when people talk to each other, they present themselves how they want to be seen, which isn't exactly how they really are -- this is something everybody has noticed at one point or another. If you really want to get to know someone, observe them when they don't know they're being watched (you know, in a non-creepy, legal way).

Another aside, this time about the book. Lennon makes Montana feel surprisingly urban. With bustling down towns and basement apartments, corner delis. There's no mention of strips of fast-food joints and big box retail that populate every town in the West. It was an interesting choice, to portray the town this way.

Anyway. Back to the point. Everything considered, it was a good book. An enjoyable read. Not as tight as it could be, but still pretty good. Worth a read