No Ears to Scream At

It's not working.

I just got off the phone with my mother. My brother's first test results came back from the lab. His Creatinine levels, which need to be in the 1.0-1.8 ranges, have shot through the roof. This is the major indicator of kidney failure. They told him to immediately come back to the hospital. When she called me she could barely stop from screaming the words, shouting them at the top of her lungs. She was at the vet getting medicine for the dog when my brother called her from his cell crying saying she had to come home right away and take him to the hospital. She told me not to call him, they would call us when they were on their way. There's no one here. Gerri's out shopping, and I can't call her with this news. I don't want to be the one to call my dad - I don't know how he'll react.

I don't know what to do. After everything, now this.

Mini Review #2: After the Quake

*NOTE: This and other early reviews were written on a variety of different sites, and were pulled together here. They remain unedited.

After the Quake by Haruki Murakami - The 4th Murakami book I've read. The stories are very short (the entire book is only 144 pages), but each one resonates with loss and emptiness. Murakami manages to make each loss felt in completely different ways, while making them all relate to one another in a larger scale.

The two best stories bookend the collection. Opener "UFO in Kashuro" shows a man perhaps discovering too late that the emptiness he has inside was once occupied by something, only to have that something possibly tricked away from him. The closer "Honey Pie" is great - a love triangle of sort thats lasts for years as only Murakami can describe, complete with stories of bears and the power to rewrite your own fate. Every character is immediately realized as a "Murakami Man," meaning his characters are imediately identifiable with his writing. Great short read.

A Farewell to Arms

*NOTE:  This and other early reviews were written on a variety of different sites, and were pulled together here.  They remain unedited.

I just added a new sidebar graphic showing what book I'm currently reading. When I went to my Library to pull the cover graphic, I noticed I had written a couple very short book reviews that never found their way onto this site. So, in the interest of posting something today, here is a small review of a book I read a couple of months ago:

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway - A young American serves as an ambulance driver for the Italian army in World War I, and finds in the midst of war true love with an English nurse.

Hemingway's prose has a rambling sort of poetry to it, similar to many writers of the beat generations. The opening chapters continuously play on certain words over and over in a passage, linking and joing like a chain until it comes across as a stream of memory. Excellent writing, even if the end seems abrupt.

No Country for Old Men

"There's always somebody knows where you're at. Knows where and why. For the most part."
"Are you talkin about God?"
"No. I'm talkin about you."

Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men is deceptive. On the surface a bare bones, ruthless narrative about a man on the run from a cold-blooded killer and the sheriff who tries to figure out the puzzle of what went down, it's also a meditation on the nature of the country as we see it now, as opposed to how we viewed it in the past. It's a book about how our perception of evil has become more grand and black with every passing generation, and where we seek to identify ourselves within that framework. It's also a story of responsibilities, to family, to community, to one's self.

The plot is almost an afterthought - quiet vet Llewelyn Moss, hunting in the plains on the Texas-Mexico border comes across a couple trucks, several dead men, blocks of heroin, and 2.4 million in cash. Moss takes the money, and from there it is a bloody chase across Texas and Mexico as psycho-killers, Mexican drug dealers, and a determined sheriff follow Moss for their own reasons. McCarthy's writing is brief but poetic - it takes a few pages to get used to his unique writing style but once you're there the story moves at break-neck speed until its all-too-abrupt conclusion. Sheriff Bell, the narrator/voice of reason in the book contemplates that this new world he's seeing is indeed No Country for Old Men, and perhaps the evil apparent in killer Anton Chigurh is an evil we may all be destined for if the world continues to dip and sway on the tip of its own modernity.

For anyone who has not yet read McCarthy, this is supposedly his most accessible book ,and might serve as a great starting place before dipping into heavier fare such as All the Pretty Horses, Suttree, or Blood Meridian. The Coen Brothers are also currently adapting this book to be their next feature film, which sounds fantastic, since in many ways the themes here echo FARGO and, to a lesser extent, BLOOD SIMPLE. Great book, A-.

Paul Muni Meets Bonnie and Clyde

I can't quite bring myself to post the picture of the actual incision, since it's kind of "below the equator" if you catch my drift. However, for those curious to see how you can get a kidney out of a body using 5 puncture holes, behold the result of lathroscopic surgery:

The one at the top was used to to push my diaphragm back, the next one down was used to blow air into the cavity (which I am still releasing to this day - never has passing gas been so sweet). Punctures #3 and #4 were for the surgeon's left and right hand, respectively.

I think #5, located on the side, was used to pick up satellite. I may be wrong on that count, though.

I'm also obviously feeling a little better today. We will actually attempt washing today, since not having showered since Tuesday morning coupled with the smell of dried blood and expelling air is not making me the most pleasant convalescent to be around, according to Mrs. Voss.