Day 3 of Canada Reads debates ended with Coupland’s Generation X as the first casualty. The debates have been intense and so to calm my thoughts I decided to make some ice cream. Some nutmeg ice cream.
The thing I have enjoyed most about these debates can be explained through the making of the custard for my nutmeg ice cream. Have you ever noticed how you can stir and stir and stir your egg yolk, sugar, and milk combo until you can stir no more and without any advance notice all of a sudden it will get firm? I mean in a matter of seconds you start seeing a trail left behind your whisk in the custard. Your mixture will get firm and if you wait too long before recognizing this transformation it will be too late. The eggs will cook. And well… that’s just not cool.
Photo Credit: Flickr: Tom Higgins' Cooking Up The Custard to Make Ice Cream
I wanted the characters in Nikolski to continue their adventures. After finishing the book I was left yearning for more and in Day 1 of debates some of the panelists said that they found the book thin, confirming my thoughts. But just like when the custard forms, because it’s had some time to think, or because it’s had 10 minutes of constant stirring, or because all the elements finally mixed and mingled and declared the custard as ready, I started to see more in the book. In fact, I started re-reading the book.
Okay, truthfully, for me the transformation happened because I was so impressed by Michel Vezina’s defense of the book. Vezina talked of the complex interconnection of families that are split all across the world, about humanity, and about garbage. I started seeing things in the book that I hadn’t before.
As a participant in the Canada Reads Challenge my thoughts were:
Book to win: Good to a Fault
My favourite book: Fall on Your Knees
Now as I stir my ice cream mixture, I have no idea how the debate will go and which book will be left standing. But if it ends up being Nikolski I would be happy. I like the book more with each stir and just like my custard has thickened, this book is no longer thin.