after finishing off two long books within a few days of each other, i'm feeling oh so relieved. i made a kind of unwise decision of starting both at the same time because one was hardcover and therefore not subway-appropriate, but they're both thick books so it took much longer to finish both than it would have each one individually.

the years of rice and salt (kim stanley robinson) was interesting though—a look at how the world might have been with most of europe plagued off in the 1300s; an impressively conscious work as well—i started it with doubt that the author would approach half of the questions i have concerning an alternate history of the entire world. but though the scope of the book is so huge, robinson touches on the majority of my questions enough. essentially the world still has economic disparity and sexism, but racism seems mainly irrelevant in this world. i would have liked to know more what africa was like though, there wasn't enough talk about it to discern how the absence of mass slavery & colonization made a difference.

the story is held together by having a group of characters reincarnated across the history. though it could be entirely cheesy or forced, it does make sense, especially when one of the characters, a historian, declares near the end:

Another way of rescuing the concept of reincarnation is simply to think of the species as the organism. The organism survives and has a collective consciousness of itself—that's history, or language, or the twisting ladder structuring our brains—and it doesn't really matter what happens to any one cell of this body. In fact their deaths are necessary for the body to stay healthy and go on, it's a matter of making room for new cells. And if we think about it that way, then it might increase feelings of solidarity and obligation to others.

i read from this, and other sections/aspects of the book, a desire for people to consider themselves some kind of continuation of people who came before them. the main characters in this book comprise a "jati" of souls who are reincarnated together and always wind up working with (and sometimes against) each other. in between their lives they meet and are aware of their history together, whereas while they are alive they are (mostly) unaware. during those in between times they discuss how they have to keep working together and remember that they are not alone, that sometimes the best thing for the jati might not be the best thing for each individual. it was intriguing the way by the end of the book the characters were totally working off of what they had accomplished in previous lives—interesting statement on history.

the other book was midnight's children (salman rushdie), a capricious and at times boisterous and always very non-linear book that did make me laugh out loud and shake my head at how silly it could be. satisfying though. it is very tied up in india's history, so it was interesting to see the years of rice and salt touch upon the revised history of india and then see the parallels and various angles away from this one.

in terms of local history, i believe i've found the final word on whether the tom's diner in my brooklyn neighborhood is the diner mentioned in suzanne vega's song. this has been an ongoing debate ever since i moved in and someone said you're right near tom's diner! like the song! and someone else said no, the real one is near columbia in manhattan. it's silly to be sad and wish that maybe she really did trek all the way out to brooklyn to get inspired—supposedly the bklyn tom's diner once received a copy of the lyrics to the song with a note saying i came, i saw, i wrote, it must have been a trick—but it's still a great place for brunch, even if the only time i've actually gone there was the day we moved in.