What I Liked About "What I Loved"

I don't know how to write a review. The closest thing I've ever done is the super-over-analysis of novels I had to do so that I could walk across a stage and get my college diploma. But, you know, throw around a bunch of phrases like "stereotypical female gender roles" and "latent identity crisis," be diligent about grammar and punctuation, and you've got yourself an honors degree, folks. So, if I was in college, I might write a paper on the two young male characters in "What I Loved" by Siri Hustvedt. Why are their names so similar? Why are they so easy to confuse? Why do their paths take such drastic turns away from one another? Nature? Nurture? The role of the mother, the missing mother, the substitute mother. You get the picture.

But a review isn't a paper, is it? Of course not. So, what is there to say about this novel?

"What I Loved" is a novel of entwined families. What happens when two families share such similarities, interests, lives? When we have our children at the same time and we share time and parenting? Of course I thought of my same-same. If we were all out together, would anyone really know which child was mine and which was hers?

And I found myself pondering, what does it mean to integrate the lives of two families together? What are you promising to give and how much are you willing to take? How much, under certain circumstances, could I really love someone else's child? Could I really be there for someone else in the face of tragedy? Who would be there for me?

I enjoyed the novel. It was beautifully, poignantly written, written in a way where each word mattered, like each brushstroke of a painting matters. And that, I loved.

Here Comes the Big Giant Dork

Neno Reviews "Here Comes the Big Red Car"

I love The Wiggles. I picked up a couple of their videos at a rummage sale when my first was a newborn, thinking, "Yeah, maybe she'll want to watch videos some day." Ha. Ha. Ha. She was full-on obsessed with the Wiggly, Wiggly Foursome for about a year before it began tapering off, mostly when she was able to follow the plots and storylines of longer videos. I love that The Wiggles are full-on cheese ball, but they know it. They're in on the joke too. I love that they are real, live musicians, and I love that they get my kid dancing and singing and loving up on the music without having to insert risque jokes, a la Disney.

We bought the Big Red Car CD because it included the music originally featured in "Dance Party," one of those old videos I picked up at that rummage sale so many moons ago. You know, back when the Big Red Car was a Big Red Piece of Cardboard (sorry, all of my friends have totally heard that joke and it wasn't even funny in the first place). We've since seen the Big Red Car video and, personally, I truly, truly enjoy the giant banana. If I had a giant banana, I'd totally get it a hammock. Sorry again. God, I'm a dork.

Okay, anyway. The CD is great. My personal favorite is "I'm a Cow." Because really, I eat grass and I moo all day, I'm a cow, I'm a cow. Excellent stuff, there. I also really like "Here We Go Dorothy," which is a bit on the beatnik jazz side. You know, for an Australian kids' band. But, I'm a sentimental, sappy mother, so of course my very favorite song on the CD is "Georgia's Song," Daddy's right here with you now, and it's your song that I sing. Oh, the tears.

I really could have done without E's Murray impression repeating the line Oh me, oh my, he barks all day and night over and over and over again in falsetto. But then that part of my soul died, and it didn't bother me so much anymore. I'm also not the world's biggest fan of Captain Feathersword's vocal talents, but whatever.

In conclusion, and without a proper segue, I'm really sorry about Greg's medical problems as of late. He will be greatly missed in our house.

This is a trial - I've got these neato links up at the top to let you know what I'm reading, listening to, etc. I thought it might be interesting (and by that I mean "boring") for me to review these things, then like, link to the reviews. But, you know, we'll see.