21st book of the year: “The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida”, by Shehan Karunatilaka
A friend posted that they’d just read a book that they think might be the best book they’d ever read, and it was this one. 4, 3, 2, 1 was listed for a Booker and this one won the prize? OK, I’ll try it.
I really wanted to like it more than I did, and the second act really flows well, but I had a hard time finishing it, today, finally. It’s right up my alley in lots of ways. v0v
The Seven Moons of Maali AlmeidaColombo, 1990. Maali Almeida—war photographer, gambler,…Goodreads (opens in a new tab)Figure 1. Link preview of https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57224204-the-seven-moons-of-maali-almeida, "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida".Figure 2. Paperback cover, as I read it, centered all-caps futura lookin' font w/ thep points all alightly rounded in white over a multicolor acrylic painted face in bold geometric cirles and rings and swoops in vibrant colors.
My kid (5y old this week!) has been obsessed with building stuff out of cardboard after drawing front back top and sides and cutting them out and wanted me to make a transformer yesterday
so i searched for patterns and fell down a papercraft hole, do not recommend
fiddly as shit i had to do all of the assembly myself
I learned to make roux for gumbo from dad’s pal from boot camp, who was from louisiana, and he taught us the patient “stir, stir, stir, heat, stir, but whatever you do, don’t burn!” method.
it stinks to stand over and mind and is apparently a recent trend. like, originally, people just didn’t make roux so dark that it was so much work
but i do like my roux dark, so i start a few hours earlier and bake it at 350F, slight stir every half hour or so, easy mode
Figure 1. a quarter sheet with a cup of oil in it, a cup of all purpose flour and roux spoon standing by, about to be addedmethod and recipe from serious eats, as per, which i use now instead of the old note card i used to dig out.Figure 2. the raw roux, mixed, pale, in a quarter sheet, about to go into the oven, which i had just stirred with my roux spoon.Figure 3. the roux in the quarter sheet in the oven.
stunt dark, labor free (free as in time)
Figure 4. roux, baked 30 minutes, color: peanut butter.Figure 5. roux, baked 60 minutes, color: chocolate.Figure 6. roux, baked 90 minutes, color: darker chocolate.Figure 7. roux, baked 240 minutes, poured and scraped onto on the aromatics, color: dark chocolate.
Incredibly neat to me, after having read it, to learn that Kohlhaas was a historical person ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kohlhaas), that Marthin Luther actually did attempt to intercede, and even cooler, that Kohlhaas was out doing direction actions for 8 years to get justice before the state got him (and broke him on the wheel, yikes)
The ebay search paid off and I was able to buy a pair of out-of-production pants identical to ones I already own (noticing as I post this that I’m wearing the original pair right now) for next to nothing because I like the pair I have and want them to live forever and this is one way to cheat commodity death. huzzah.
Telling a friend about 4, 3, 2, 1 over dinner, I said it was romantic and lovely, if you didn’t mind new yorkers in love with new york, ellis island through the 60s, the anti-war movement, and all that shit we’ve heard so much about, which I did not mind.
Later, while my kid was eating pizza and getting sauce two inches up both cheeks, I asked him to fold it in half and the guy at the next table who’d overheard me laughed and said "I’m from New York and it’s really like all of that, you know”
Loved it, spent most of my spare time since I started it with it, will miss it, probably missed a lot in it.
Figure 2. The paperback cover as I read it - lower-case individually-placed stencil letters on an uneven baseline, the author’s name in blue sky atop the title in rust or flame orange, all over flat navy blue.
4 3 2 1 was full of writers learning the trade from other writers and hundreds of books are mentioned. I’m sure I’ll thumb through it for more suggestions but this one was the first I chose.
I think probably best to go in completely without any idea what it is beyond: german, written early 1800s, takes place in the 1500s, and Kafka, of all people liked it a lot.
Figure 4. The paperback cover as I read it - just over 100 pages (slim!), an illustrated figure wearing a cloak leans against a broad sworn with one foot extended, hand to chin, only there is no chin (and no head), over a green to red to green gradient. The book title atop and author’s name below in gothic script.
