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This way my first GA, I attended virtually as a delegate for my congregation, I'm really glad I agreed to do it, was personally slightly bummed the fat liberation study proposal didn't win, I thought there were some really solid arguments during the second round. There were some really good talks all around, though I think we could work on our discussion process a bit.
Blue Skies is a somewhat satirical novel by T.C. Boyle about the Cullen family in California and Florida who struggle with environmental changes, lifestyle choices, health challenges, and birth and death.
Ottilie and Robert are the parents who live in Santa Barbara, CA and have two adult children, Cooper an entomologist and Cat who lives in Florida and fancies herself as an influencer. Robert is a retired physician and Ottilie, while unemployed, is the matriarch of the family and engaged in various social and community activities.
Most of the story revolves around Cat who is married to a liquor salesman who travels a lot and she gives birth to twin girls. Being lonely when her husband is traveling in his sales job, she buys a pet python since her husband is allergic to dog and cat fur. The python gets out of its aquarium and eats one of the twin girls leading to major grief and PR horror.
Cooper gets bitten by a tick while out collecting specimens and has his leg amputated.
Cooper, a vegetarian, convinces his mother to give up meat and eat insects instead and Ottillie buys a roach incubator and serves disguised insects cooked into various recipes to her dinner guests.
What makes this novel funny is the lack of self awareness of the characters and their lifestyle choices which, while plausible, seem unwise and likely to lead to negative consequences. Their attempts to adapt to environmental concerns by doing what they think are good things wind up being somewhat misguided and ill advised. The meaning and purpose of their family and individual lives seems materialistic and shallow.
The members of the Cullen family seem like lost souls who pick up trendy ideas and engage in them in unthinking ways that seem sad and tragic. The main impression the reader might get from the book is that people can be well meaning but shallow and stupid and because of this shallowness and stupidity shit happens.
So the moral of the story of Blue Skies might be to reconsider oneβs values and focus more on what really matters instead of trying to perform some scripted role which has been handed to you of which you are unconscious.
If you would like a copy of this book free of charge, email your shipping address to me at davidgmarkham@gmail.com.
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