My second book blog post of the day either means that I crushed through the second one in record speed, or I was really behind on blogging and finally got around to writing about both of them today.

I strongly advise you not wager money on the first scenario.

After highlighting a ton of things in “Quiet” I found myself barely flagging anything in Dave Eggers’ “A Hologram for the King.”  That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, but the story didn’t bring out a ton that I felt would make for good discussion here.

In fact, the only thing I picked out that wasn’t some sort of personal reminder to look something up is this idea about a very specific role some people play in our lives.  Alan is the protagonist, a consultant trying to help a big American IT company land a contract at a new city in Saudi Arabia.  He’s divorced with a daughter, and during a trip overseas to try to seal the deal he writes letters to his daughter, Kit.

In this one, he’s talking about Kit’s mother and how whatever the daughter thinks of her, the mother wasn’t always as awful as Kit thinks.

“Whatever she’s done that has displeased you I want you to know that you are who you are because of your mother because of her strength.  She knew when to be the tugboat.  She coined that term, Kit.  The tugboat.  She was the steady, she navigated around the dangers lurking below.”

Just as there are anchors who weigh us down, I like this idea of someone who pulls us along, navigating us through the waters with their strength and knowledge of the environment.

I’ve read several of Eggers’ books, and what I like about them is the way he latches onto and really develops the main character, whose eyes are the ones through which we see the story.  It’s like Eggers is walking down the street, sees someone interesting, then shrinks himself down small enough to jump inside the person’s brain and starts narrating the view.

That said, this was not my favorite of his — “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” is the clear leader — but certainly an interesting story to dip into.