Maps To Anywhere First Half

When I read anything; nonfiction, fiction, or poetry, I like to find parts that I can relate to or parts that really interest me. I think that is why I like novels more because I can pick out situations that appeal to myself and my life. It doesn't have to be my whole like, it could just be a situation that I am in or even something that has happened to one of my family members or a friend. That might be why I enjoyed some parts of this first half of Maps to Anywhere. While I started reading this, snooze fest! Normally if I get bored within the first few pages of a book then I stop reading it. Since we are required to read this, I decided that I must force myself to move on. And then it got interesting!

On page 4 I really related to a section that was half way down the page. "My own name was problematic. While Jeff and Mary could go to the five-and-dime and find cups and wallets bearing their names--evidence that they belonged to a vast and accepted subset of humanity--Bernard was always out of the question, however much I'd spin the racks and dig in the bins with hope;  Andy, Art, Bill, Bobby, Charles." I always had this problem when I was smaller. Whether it was a keychain, a fake license plate cover for a bike, or anything else that stores decided to put names on, there was never one with my name on it. Of course they had Bobby, with a 'y' but none with the correct spelling. I can relate to this poor kid that just wanted to find one thing with his name on it, but manufacturers just seemed to skip right over his name. With this passage I started to get interested in the book and felt that there was some hope after all.

There was another line that really caught my attention. On page 8, "...when love sought justice, they were both blind." This section in the book talks about his dad becoming a lawyer and how he had his own office. His dad had a over the top attraction to the other sex that it lead his dad to cheat on his mother multiple times, or that's what it sounded like in the book. But those certain words caught my eye. It made it seem like love and justice can't coexist. There is either one or the other, which I don't think is particularly true. Love and justice can go together just fine just depending on the people involved and the situation. There are certain situations, such as a courtroom, where justice must come before love. It seems like in society now there is a division between the two, love and justice. You can either have one or the other.

I'm excited to keep reading more and more from this book and trying to keep relating to it in ways that make me think back in time!