Bang!Zoom! Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I read this yesterday, anyone else? Something about it bugs me and I can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like there's some kind of angry woman thing it brought up in me and I want to vent out. Some of the quotes at the beginning chapters were absolutely cool, grant you that. I keep finding my mind floating back to this reading, and before I re-donate it I want to touch that thing that angered me but has no name at this time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtokea Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I read this a couple of years ago, so I may not remember details. He cheated on his wife, got some young thing pregnant, his wife kicked him out. He had grown children and from what I remember, his visits with them were awkward? I remember those things bugging me. I can't remember now, how exactly did he end up working at Starbucks? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 He got fired from his job at an advertising agency, was down to the last of his savings, newly diagnosed with a brain tumor and jumped at any chance to get health insurance. It was pure serendipity that he was in Starbucks and interviewed for a job there. Then he worried about getting the job..for weeks. Finally got the call, and started making an hour and a half commute into NY city to work at a location. He totally dismisses three of his four grown children in that book. And the entries on his pre-school age son from the liaison take up all of maybe 5 sentences? The elbowing of Queen Elizabeth about freaked me out. I'll never be able to eat another cucumber sandwich without thinking about this JERK. I really didn't like him or the way the story rolled out. I found it to be a mid-life self absorbed denial journal, as well as some huckstering basically. I think he's very untrustworthy in text, and I wouldn't stop to have lunch with him ever. But there's something more grating at me. I can't put my finger on it. It's not the racial inferences, it's not the spoiled brat thing...his references to the trainer which left for the Marines ****REALLY**** ground me up worst of all. Maybe it's the dissin' of the disciplined. I dunno. I rather found her to be the most heroic of all in the story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momtokea Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Oh right! Yes, the brain tumour, now I remember. I have to admit I don't remember a lot of details Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 (edited) I thought he depicted his boss and Starbucks very nicely but I found something irritating about him too. I think it was partly the "hey! Black people are normal too!" and also the pitiful brain tumor / my wife left me bit. The other thing was the "wow, cleaning toilets was the best thing that happened to me" too. Edited March 21, 2012 by stripe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Twana is the name of the lady who enrolled in the service. Now it might be my conditioning/background talking here...but on page 220 he says: "I had a sudden revelation (like his 5,703,999th one in the book so far, barf)- of how far my world was from theirs. My streets in Bronxville were safe. I had never seen anyone stab anyone. Yet this was a grim and terrible reality most of my Partners lived with everyday. From her point of view, I lived in a protected bubble of privilege, and it was about time I was given some hits. Tawana might not stab me, but she would be happy to see me get hurt in some way. She had been hurt by a world that was tilted against her. Wasn't it about time that I got what was coming to me? She certainly wasn't about to grant me any slack. Who had ever granted Tawana any slack? So I could understand Tawana's anger, and how she would want to take it out on me because she saw me as a representative of another world that had kept her down." What in Good God's name does he think enrolling in the military is about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bang!Zoom! Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 I really need to get this book out of my head...but I think this is the one where my face went all afire about Tawana....pg. 254 (backstory, Tawana is supervising him on cash register duty, he comes in one day and comes within the margins of a write-up due to an overage on his cash register till. Normally, this work infraction requires a formal write up & warning, but his store manager over-rode protocol on it and let it slide by discussing it with him, which is in direct conflict with Tawana's duties as the director of that area..he got off with a verbal discussion when it required by protocol a write up...Tawana was really PO'd about this..) page 254: "Focus, Mike," Tawana called out, making sure I did not get too comfortable. Before I had a chance to take the first customer, she called to me, "I'm joining the Marine Corps." "Good," I called back. "You'll like that life." And I wasn't kidding. Having worked with the Marines, I knew Marines were passionate, just like Tawana. "I'm going in as an officer," she called to me. "After I do Quantico." "Good," I replied again. Tawana liked bossing people around and would have a chance in the Marine Corps to release her rage in a positive way. ----------------------- Um. Ya. That. Release her rage in the Marine Corps. Not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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