Distraction: Hyperion by Dan Simmons

Hyperion, the 1990 Hugo Award winner, qualifies as a Distraction because it’s definitely not older than me. It’s not so much a Distraction, however, as a holdover from last year’s reading. I had put it aside for some reason I can’t remember, and I finally just got around to finishing it.

You see, here’s where I qualify as a bit of an oddball. I love this book. It’s one of the most satisfying science fiction stories I’ve ever read. It qualifies as literature, not just entertainment. Simmons’s writing is superb. His story-telling style is brilliant. The future universe he created is fascinating. The suspense is thrilling. And yet I took months to read Hyperion this time around.

Perhaps it is because of all those good qualities that I linger over wonderful pages such as these. I don’t really want such a story to end. Most of this novel consists of stories told by the individual characters embarking on a pilgrimage. They are each on their way to the backwater world of Hyperion where the elusive and terrifying Shrike, a creature of lethal blades and no mercy, makes its home. Each has his or her own reason for being there and each tells his or her story on the way, Canterbury Tales-style.

It’s the fantastic science fiction setting that makes this novel’s invitation to escape into its pages irresistible, but it’s the different voice of each character that makes Hyperion something to truly appreciate as literature. Since each character is so different from his companions, each voice is pleasantly unique and allows the author to demonstrate significant talent as a story-teller.

I can’t tell you too much about what happens and/or why without giving away enough to spoil the fascination and suspense of this novel. I will tell you, however, that this reading confirmed that Hyperion is one of my favorite books of all time and of all sorts. I’ll also tell you that the end of the novel is not by any means the end of the story, or of any of the stories. There is a sequel, The Fall of Hyperion, which I’ve read but don’t remember much about. I wonder how long I’m going to be able to stick to Books that are Older than Me before I cave in to that Distraction.

A Year of Books that are Older than Me

Distraction: Cooked by Michael Pollan

A Natural History of Transformation

I’m actually a little surprised that I made it halfway through this year before completely succumbing to a Distraction: a book I haven’t read before but I nonetheless must read. Cooked, the newest book by one of my favorite authors, also happens to be about one of my favorite subjects: food and cooking. Once I had access to this book, I didn’t stand a chance of sticking solely with all those Books I’ve Read Before.

Cooked is Michael Pollan’s chronicle of learning to cook from scratch in terms of four elements: fire, water, air, earth. In the realm of fire, he explores whole hog pit barbecue. For water, he learns to braise. Air is the element leavening the sourdough bread he learned to make and earth is the natural home of the microbes he borrowed to ferment vegetables, milk and grains. This, to me, was a surprising way to organize a book on cooking and it proved to be very interesting.

Of course, Pollan isn’t just going to give us a recipe diary. The book is filled with accounts of his time with experts on each subject (I particularly like the cheese-making, microbiologist nun) and more of his characteristic quality journalism along with tactful but frank opinions. Plenty of facts and techniques, successful and less successful ventures are all chronicled in detail.

Through this giant set of cooking lessons, Pollan doesn’t just emphasize the importance of good recipes, quality ingredients, and healthy eating.  The real answers to questions about why anyone should want to cook when just about anything one needs is commercially (and usually affordably) available are complex and have as much or more to do with connections between people. And using the four traditional elements to transform products of the environment into nourishment for human communities has been the key to the idea of “cooking” for all of history.

 

You might also like: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan

 

 

A Year of Books I’ve Read Before