More summer readin'
Since I last posted on this topic, I've finished reading The River of Doubt as well as The Member of the Wedding. For the first three of my summer reads, I took my cues from recommendations on NPR. For my final pick of the summer, I've taken a tip from the hubster and am immersed in a noir-esque novel called Citizen Vince set in the fall of 1980 about an ex-con who comes face to face with his ambivalence about turning legit when his voter registration card comes in the mail. I'm enjoying the novel a great deal, particularly due to its congruence with my research interests in criminology and reintegration, not to mention my boss' expertise in felon dis/re-enfranchisement.
Here's my favorite passage from the book so far. The protagonist has just received his voter registration card in the day's mail and flips on the TV only to find a debate between Carter and Reagan. With the 2008 election brewing, I find this quote to be quite resonant:
"And yet here is Vince Camden, at the peak of technology and development, at the crest of a remarkable wave of human achievement, in a world created by piling these single thoughts together, strung out over millennia - here is Vince Camden, himself a technological and legal creation, standing alone in a heated, wired, insulated shelter, witnessing a thirteen-inch box beaming a mash of electrons that when unscrambled depict two men vying for the most powerful position in the history of the world at a time when the push of a button can effectively end civilization. Here is Vince Camden, overwhelmed by his own significance and by his desire to change, by the undertow of history, and by the weight of so many choices, undone by this miracle of being and by all these strands connected in the thread of one simple thought:
Which one of these stupid fucks are you supposed to vote for?"
