Recent Reads, Thoughts, Films, Art

Just a quick summary of things I've been reading, thinking about, or enjoying in art. Books: The Post Office Girl by Stefan Zweig - Post-war Austria. A presumably mid-twenties girl who works in a small village post office is plucked by her aunt and invited to join the aunt's trip to the Austrian alps, so she's momentarily afforded the high life. She's abruptly cast off by her benefactors and left to return to her life as it was before--BUT she finds herself changed. As one of the many critics of capitalism, I enjoyed the way Zweig laid bare the emotional, psychological, and spiritual deprivation that is irrevocably intertwined with financial precarity. I saw a bit of my younger self in the protagonists, when they pinched pennies to sit in Viennese cafes on one of their rare free days. Apparently, this novel inspired Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - I read this during our trip to California over the July 4th holiday. I was never assigned it in…