James Patterson takes the reader on a wild ride in Cross Country. After a brutal murder in the DC area, Detective Cross travels to Africa in search of The Tiger and sees brutality and desperation up close. Of course he escapes death time and time again. It's not great literature but it's fun for a day at the beach (when you don't have to watch the kids in the water....). The story did give me pause as Patterson's descriptions of Africa are heartbreaking.
Yesterday was memoir day at the beach. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy tells her story, the story
of young girl who does battle with Ewing's sarcoma. Discovered quite by accident, the cancer, Lucy learns, has a five percent survival rate. Despite parents who don't quite get how to care for a sick child (be tough, show no fear, don't cry), Lucy perseveres through years of daily radiation treatments, weekly chemo appointments, endless teasing by boys and 30 operations in two different countries. Is she a hero? I would say she showed heroic qualities at different parts of her life. Conflicted, complicated may be more apt descriptions.
Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto, wrote a memoir of her friendship with Lucy five years ago titled Truth and Beauty. Patchett and Grealy went to Sarah Lawrence together, though their knowledge of one another was minimal. It wasn't until the Iowa Writer's Workshop that they forged a bond. I read it when it came out simply because I love Patchett. If I remember correctly, Patchett paints a hard picture of what it's like to be Grealy's friend (though she knew Grealy was a gifted poet).
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