End of Days, by Dennis Danvers. The premise of the book is that most of humanity has created a virtual world in which they can live and be immortal, literally leaving their bodies, while the remainder are left on an Earth inhabited by religious fanatics and a class of genetically engineered former slaves. Danvers uses the novel to reflect (rather ponderously) on the meaning of such lives.

Note: This has nothing to do with the 1999 Arnold film,which apparently nobody liked.
posted 9:14 AM

Sunday, April 08, 2001

I've been rereading Bury Me Standing, which is a travel/politics books about the plight of Gypsies in Eastern Europe. I think the most surprising this about this book is that Fonescu documents that gypsies were actually SLAVES in eastern europe until the 1850s - which places their troubles in modern europe in a very different context. Anyway, it's a fascinating book. [James is asking me whether "Bury Me Standing" might be a reference to Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and I have to say I don't know. It does refer directly to something a Rom activist said to the author, but that doesn't invalidate the connection...]

It's been a week for re-reading, as I also read R.A.MacAvoy's The Grey Horse, which is a rather fluffy, fun fantasy about a puca who goes to Ireland to convince a woman to marry him, AND James picked up the new Love & Rockets comic, in which I enjoyed remembering how much my friend Fenriss reminds me of Maggie. Rachel was thirty this last week. I certainly hope it was a good birthday.
posted 8:54 PM