Monday, March 03, 2008

Almanac of the Dead update

Remember when I spoke about my reading goal for the year? Well, a correction is needed. The book is only 762 pages, not over a 1000 pages long. This surprised me because I've been able to speed through other lengthy books like Anna Karenina and the Harry Potter series. But this book takes forever.

First let me describe the layout of the book. There are six parts with a total of 19 books within the parts.
The first part takes place in the United States. We are in Tucson at Zeta's house where we meet several key(?) characters. Ferro is the son Lecha abandoned and Zeta claimed. He is obsessed with guns. Paulie is the attack dog caretaker and an ex-con. Lecha is addicted to Demerol, codeine and is a well-known psychic, dying of cancer.
Sterling, the gardener, left his rez and accidentally goes to Tucson. He subscribes to Police Gazette and True Detective magazines. He mentions the story of loss of the Stone Idols and the "finding" of them later in a museum. This loss has been difficult for his reservation. "Found" artifacts have always been an interesting argument of ownership. Should the artifacts be returned to the original owners? Or should they be kept on display? How can you even argue ownership? The dispute over how artifacts are given, sold, stolen, etc alone is questionable.
Lecha was returning to Tucson to get things in order before her death. She hired Seese to aid her in transcribing her old notebooks into a word processor and to act as a nurse if anyone should question the drugs or injections. Seese is a recovering(?) coke addict who takes the job because she wants Lecha (the psychic) to find her baby.

Sounds like a classic episode of Maury Povich if you ask me.

I have a feeling this one sentence has set up the rest of the novel, "Nothing happens by accident here". We shall certainly see!

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