living on air

i realize i have gone through about twice as many books in the last three months than in the last year combined. what is that? perhaps the choice of not turning on the tv at night, perhaps needing to disengage during nap times, possibly having renewed my love of books while on vacation this summer.... who knows. i am enjoying it though.

shapiro's book started slow for me. i could not engage with this 14 year-old living in the paradox of prep school and artist home. she was elusive to me as a character and there was not enough plot... where was this going? what was the point? i was reading to pass the time..... and then something happened. i finished the book and was sad it was over. i felt like it started out simply as a pretentious book about the change that the art world incurred during the 60s and how this impacted yet another coming of age story..... it was that but ended up being so much more. "maude made her was to her room thinking about this paradox: that the more she tried to hold on to or hold together what mattered to her, the less she held. it was like clenching ice. it just got smaller and smaller in her hand." shapiro has a great capacity for detail and the esoteric while still being enjoyable.