i was up late finishing this book.
it was really good.
it's REAL PEOPLE from real life - which i love.
it's challenging - which i love.
and it's long, so it took me almost a week of reading before bed to finish it - which i love (sometimes i just go through books TOO fast!)
it's about 2 men - one a modern-day slave and one a millionaire - and how their lives meet.
here's a conversation between the 2 of them:
"I knew Denver (the modern-day slave...and homeless man) was sincere when he told me (the millionaire) that he would not want to trade places with me for even one day. His convictions became clear to me when I laid down my key ring on the table between us at one of our earliest meetings for coffee.
Denver smiled a bit and sidled up to a cautious question. 'I know it ain't none of my business, but does you own somethin that each one of them keys fits?'
I glanced at the keys; there were about ten of them. 'I suppose,' I replied, not really ever having thought about it.
'Are you sure you own them, or does they own you?'"
hmm...see! CHALLENGING!
8 comments:
I LOST a LOT of sleep reading that book, too. My eyelids would try to close but I would do anything it took to keep them open. Such beautiful humanity conveyed in this book. And so horrifying to learn of our country's legalized slavery even into the 1950's. I had not known about this.
I work with a homelessness shelter now, and that book helped me to get inside his brain and understand him better. And I no longer call them "homeless"; I now can't call people anything but victims of homelessness. Beautiful story. Glad you enjoyed it. I don't know anyone who hasn't.
I want to own some of his artwork :)
one last comment-
isn't amazing that the book starts out telling you by chapter and title who is speaking in the first person, but by the end you know the characters and you no longer have to be told who is speaking? And you know the voice, so the "broken english" begins to fluently speak to you...it's almost like maybe once we put names, faces and voices to people they become more human--- and we are unified in our similarities rather than separated by our differences---and the great cavern between us is caught in its lie. i thought it was beautiful that way...humanity is pretty. i like it :)
totally, robyn. i could never put it into words like you did, though :-) i just know it in my heart.
well, you do have a most unbelievably beautiful heart, courtney. it is quite remarkable :) what a person you are...
(i love situations where it is entirely impossible to exaggerate- love it!)
you guys have gotten me so excited about getting this book... I want to read it now... thanks for the suggestion!
hey girl!!!
I totally feel ya!...i do that to myself all the time---esp with a book you can't put down and then i hate myself the next day!! :) I LOVE that book!!!....we are going to see them tomorrow night at a benefit dinner!!!! I'm soooo excited!!!!!!
xoxoxo!
I want to read that now!
Sounds like a book that I will have to read!
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