Groundskeeping

Groundskeeping by Lee Cole (2022) Excellent ending, which I’m a sucker for, or should I say, my kind of ending, because it feels right, and also, it made me think (well, maybe all of it, cumulatively, did) about choices in life. And maybe for the first time, I had this crazy notion: maybe it doesn’t matter. I was a little skeptical at the beginning of this book, but it grew on me pretty steadily as it went along. The only thing I didn’t like, really, were the sex scenes, because, I admit, I’m a bit of a prude, I guess, and that it centers on two characters in their twenties, early and late—and of course the mistakes people in their twenties make. Which shouldn’t be hard for me to read about—and wasn’t, ultimately. They’re both more mature than I was at those ages. It’s a love story, and a good one, though also about art (writing, mostly) and families (fascinating, in that the family stuff is so different from my experience, yet very recognizable). With our brutal times (2016) as an unavoidable, painful backdrop—but that’s where we are. I picked it up because it’s about school (one of my subjects, lately) and writing (which I’m always up for). Also, work, that is, crummy jobs. Also, this was another interesting text vs. audio experiment, as I had, and did, both. I started with audio, but then went to the book and was surprised that the author chose not to use quotation marks, a bold choice which works, here, for me—adds to the feeling that it’s autobiographical (which it is and it isn’t). The narrator of the audio book is very good, but almost too entertaining—and I ultimately felt that it read better as text, because it’s a little flatter—works better for me. I have to add, there is a character named “Randy,” which I’m a connoisseur of—my name—plus, trying trying to figure out why “Randy” is so often synonymous with “douche-bag”—and here, he doesn’t disappoint—goes by “Rando!” Finally, that ending, is it ambiguous? It’s not, but it could be. Mable it’s ambiguous whether it’s ambiguous—kind of half or double ambiguity. Not to give anything away, but I know what I would do, and it’s not necessarily what our hero, here, would do. Are and were my choices wrong? Or did it, ultimately, not matter?

9.21.26