Christmas Eve 2007

[saavedra77]

On Christmas Eve, the family got together as we usually do at my sister Carmen's McMansion in Voorhees, where per our customary practice gifts were exchanged at midnight.

I'm indebted to Carmen's daughter April, "my favorite niece" (we're only a few years apart, so more like siblings), for supplying me with gift suggestions for all of my relatives back there, since I live so far away and I have trouble keeping track of what people are in to and have.

April told me that her mom was interested in reading novels set in India. So after confirming what Carmen had already read, I bought her Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. Both of these novels struck me as the kind of story that Carmen would be in to, irrespective of setting: we share an appreciation for sprawling family sagas (Seth's novel reeeeeeeally emphasizes the sprawl, as it's reputedly the longest English-language novel ever published in a single volume ....). So I'm interested to see what she thinks of them.

I gave Carmen's husband, my brother-in-law Gil, a couple of batchata CDs, Aventura's God's Project and Love & Hate, which I'm told that he already loves. Having "ripped and wrapped" the disks before giving them away, I have to say that this music is growing on me, too.

April also got books from me--two of my favorite novels from the past decade, Rushdie's Shalimar the Clown and Eugenides' Middlesex. April's just as avid a reader as her mother, and I look forward to hearing what she thinks of these.

I went out on a limb and gave my twentysomething nephew Junior a book, as well, Flanagan's The Unknown Terrorist, because a novel about a pole dancer mistaken for a terrorist's gun moll ... sounded like his kind of thing. (It even has a website with a cheesy trailer! Just like the kind of movie he likes.) We'll have to see how that one works out ...

My nephew Eric and his girlfriend Katie are trying to outfit a new house so I just gave them a generous Lowe's gift card. And April's kids Alexis and Jeremy received iTunes gift cards from me, since I wanted to give them music but have no idea what they're listening to, anymore.

As for me, I received a raft of things off of my Amazon wish list, including: the Criterion edition of Jules Dassin's Night and the City (one of my all-time favorite noirs), Ojos de Brujo's Techarí, Los Lobos' The Town and the City, Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and Toni Morrisson's Jazz. Also, pajamas, slippers. Pretty good haul, all in all.

I wish that I could include pictures of the event and the ensuing sea of torn paper, but my camera died on the eve of this trip. So I'll have to wait for my relatives to email them to me, then maybe I'll make a separate post.

Comments

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

A Suitable Boy is one of my favoritest books ever! You should give it a read yourself when you have the time.

Looking forward to pictures when/if you post them.

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

A Suitable Boy is definitely on my reading list! Your recommendation definitely bumps it a little higher, too. :)

[verbicide.livejournal.com]

I appreciate that :) I really think you'll love it --it's such a gloriously huge sprawling epic. Seth's talent as a poet also comes through. One of my favorite pieces of poetry, "The Fever Bird," is in this book!

Let me know when you've read it--we should discuss!

[saavedra77.livejournal.com]

I will! I miss our talks at Uptown.