Resolution52 – Brian Utley & Jenny Dalton

Christmas morning. I don’t remember the exact words, but it was something along the lines of “it looked like something you’d be interested in”. A present from Jenny. The book was VERY interesting, one of the most engaging books I’ve read in a long time, with a cast of authentic and relatable characters. While reading a book that focuses on how little people really know about each other, I reflected, in turn, on how well Jenny did know me, with the book as solid proof right there in front of my face. Jenny and I are different in many ways, but we know each other. She knows enough to read a few words on a book cover and know it’s right up my alley. I’m glad I have that in my life.

I was primarily impressed by the imagination of the author, writing from the perspective of so many different people, and doing it so aptly. It never seemed like it was a single author writing about several different characters, using only his limited knowledge of life gained from his own experience. It ALWAYS seemed like a very personal 1st person narrative. Each writer brutally honest, sincere, and completely revealed, with all their faults and weaknesses. To quote NYT: “[the book] is so good I had to read it twice simply to figure out how he pulled it off. I still haven’t answered that question, nor do I know how someone so young … could have acquired such a precocious grasp of human foibles. The novel is alternately hilarious and heart-wrenching, and it’s assembled like a Rubik’s Cube.”

The views were refreshing. We all struggle. We all have fears and pain and fight the feeling of loneliness. These characters buoyed me not by telling me the loneliness was going away, or that there is always a resolution, they buoyed me because in a lot of ways we are all the same, we all have our frailties, and because of this, we’re not alone. We all fight the good fight, and even though the book was filled with failure and ineptitude, could there be any other single unchangeable thing that we all have in common and ties us all together than our lack of perfection?

I get trapped in the idea of judging myself in many areas based on the relative “distance” I am from someone else in those areas. For instance, if I wanted to be an accomplished author, I picked the wrong book to read because the author is a couple years younger than me and has written a bestseller. Some of the characters were the same, measuring their success on how successful those around them are, or have been. The reader’s advantage is being able to see all the characters from above and see that when comparing people, success, happiness, there is no usable metric. I can’t help but feel that if someone tried to use a metric, deep down inside it would be skewed to side of “I’m not doing enough”. There’s the young, rich publisher who is as alone and as empty as Scrooge himself, and then there’s the old, destitute, and redundant writer who finds safety in a charitable and unconditionally loving son. And who’s better off? Money, family, career, love, accomplishments….In the algorithm of life and happiness, which elements are worth more than others?

2012, Book Thoughts Brian Utley, the imperfectionists