(no subject)

[rivka]

I can't recall the last time a book actually caused me physical pain.

I finished Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow about fifteen minutes ago, wishing - for the last hundred pages - that I didn't have to keep reading. Pierced straight through the soul. Jesus, it hurt. I feel turned inside out.

If I mentioned this book to you in any way, over the last few days, and gave the impression that you ought to read it... I don't know. Maybe you ought. It was certainly a remarkable treatise on the tragedy of innocence and the meaning of suffering, and obviously deeply moving, and I think an important book. And I'd kind of like company right now in my feeling of turned-out emptiness. But I'm not exactly sure that I want to have the responsibility of causing you to read it. If that makes sense.

I'm being cryptic, and at the present moment I'm not sure I'm capable of much else. Certainly I'm too stunned for deep reflection. I'll confine myself to saying that in Matthew 10:29 there is precious little spiritual comfort for the sparrow.

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I loved this book, but it affected me very much the same way it affected you (with the added knife-twist of having grown up Catholic and been close to several Jesuits).

If you'd like to talk about it with someone who knows whereof you speak, e-mail me.

(It's not a spoiler to say that the sequel, "Children of God," offers redemption for *some* of the suffering in "The Sparrow." But as you might imagine, not in a pat or easy way.)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Hey love, I'm here. Write, if you wish. Or tell me when next we see each other. Don't worry about spoilers at this point.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

It is a beautiful tragedy. I'll only recommend this kind of book to someone I'm willing to offer emotional support to afterward.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I cruised through Google Groups last night looking for... emotional support, I guess. I wanted to read things from people who'd been similarly moved. And I found them, but I was also absolutely croggled to find someone being dismissive of the book because he didn't believe Russell had actually done the calculations on whether there could be a planet in the location and orbit described.

I understand that accurate science is important, but the critical sciences to The Sparrow are anthropology and linguistics - and those do seem to be well and thoroughly done. At any rate, fundamentally, from my point of view it's a tragic religious novel first and SF second.

I found myself still haunted by it today - shivering. I picked up the sequel in the bookstore and decided to put it back without even previewing the first chapter. I'm not ready yet.

[redbird]

I'll second what cattitude said, and add that the sequel is also wrenching.