Taking on Water, by David Rawding … James Morrow suffered child abuse as a kid and he’s retained a hair trigger temper he has to suppress at all costs. As an adult, he's a social worker sifting through the paperwork of child abuse cases. He’s married a beautiful African-American woman, Maya, who is also a detective. The action takes place on a small New Hampshire coastal town called Newborough, which has become a launching pad for some of the epidemic heroin flow our country faces nationwide.
While the local kids are at risk from the infusion of heroin, the local police can’t seem to get a hold on the drug trafficking. Early on Maya saves a few fellow officers when she shoots and kills a drug dealer during a drug raid. James spots a potential child abuse victim, Kevin Flynn, and inserts himself into the family when he notices the kid has bruises. Kevin’s father, Tucker, is a lobsterman struggling to survive a dying business. James befriends the Tucker family to learn what he can about Kevin’s condition.
I love learning from books and Rawding’s Taking on Water does a terrific job describing the life of lobstermen; from their daily difficult routines to the economic, climate, and familial challenges they face. The author also highlights the problems of earning a living in an unforgiving economy; how the pressure to survive a laissez-faire mindset and structure can easily lead men astray. Rawding touches on several social issues in this novel, including economics, survival, child abuse, drug addiction and law enforcement.
There are no spoilers here, but the twists in this book are wonderfully dark. I thought the ending was a magnificent touch. This was a book I purposely took my time reading (4 days) and I found myself anxious to get back to it day by day.
Taking on Water is a noirish view of what can happen to men when their industry suffers a slow but steady death. The spiraling concomitant effect it will have on one good man when his world is suddenly and brutally shattered is both terrifying yet righteous.
Giving Women a Pass … The same way I understood how African-Americans would vote for Barack Obama no matter what back in 2008, I accept the same from women regarding Hillary Clinton. I don’t think either was (or would) necessarily be the smart choice, but I accepted votes based on race then and I accept votes based on gender now.
Obama was supposed to lead a resurgence of liberal politics that would lift all boats via progressive ideas. Many chose to ignore his Wall Street money for the sake of a first half African-American/half white president. So it went (including his promise to curb Wall Street).
Hillary provides an opportunity for women to experience their first female President and many are more than willing to ignore her track record on pretty much everything. So it may go.
There are also some women who refuse to take the bait and vote against their self-interests for the sake of a gender victory (my wife included).
I understand the desire and won’t fight the former unless asked to in Facebook debates. A word of caution for those looking for that debate: you better believe I’ll point to her defense of a child rapist (during which she joked about getting him off), her willingness to stay with a husband through several sexual scandals, including one he eventually perjured himself in, and her ever-changing shifts in positions regarding everything from her desire for restrictions on some abortions to her changeups on marriage equality (all always directly coinciding with shifts in the political winds).
Her being on the corporate board of Walmart can be ignored by some, but it will never be ignored by me (where was her advocacy for female employees then?). Nor will her consistently wrong insistence on regime change not come up in those debates. Regime change has failed miserably twice now (Iraq and Libya) and she was in favor of one and an architect of the other.
Frankly there are too many flip-flops on policy to take Hillary Clinton serious beyond the gender factor, so I no longer bother unless provoked.
Middleclass women who want to shoot themselves in the foot, have at it (you have my condolences and respect). If you can’t see the forest for the trees, nobody can make you see it.
Middleclass women willing to see the bigger picture, right on!
Momma Stella turned 86 on December 26th, and we had a party in her room. I got to see my cugino Jason and his wife Alison, Disney (Zia) Fran, my son Charles, his wife Leslie, and the co-star of the show, Evelyn Amelia Stella.
It was a great time … and yes, she called me a stupid ass, a moron, a shithead and a dopey bastid, but those are words of affection for her Sonny Boy ... and yes,
I love my Mommy!
—Knucks
MSNBC finally speaks truth to power … what sends democrats scurrying under their beds.
