Great book but a completely different story from the movie. Slightly disappointed with the ending. ( )

Good

Well-written, gripping thriller, though ending was disappointing ( )

Favorite sentence: "The old man nodded the way old men do when repeating words that have stunned them to the point of disbelief." ( )

This story brought me pleasure. The first time I read Joseph Conrad saying in that book that sometimes a philosopher is less instead of more than an ordinary man, I thought he was just real-man-ing me, you know. And you know how Joe is. Snakes and salamanders were sunning themselves side by side all seasonā€”no really! Iā€™m selling you the sā€™ruth! You can sā€™leave see!

So I was like, Whatever Joe.

But now, I donā€™t know. I still havenā€™t thrown away Kantā€™s Lectures on Ethics, but certainly Manny was overparticular about What Counts As Reason, you know, and sometimes I do wonder if Iā€™m too intellectual, even too religious. Of course, I donā€™t mean that as a scam, you know. Are you too religious? Join MyReligion, today! ā€”Of course, the classic Calvinist/Lutheran theologian is probably an Enneagram One, so they probably unconsciously think that theyā€™re leaning on Two or something, and in another world where people are what they appear to be they might be. But in this very like, Choose the Right Answer, OR, go fuck yourself, way that they have, itā€™s like they think that youā€™ve just gotta be strong, even though they Say youā€™ve just gotta be in relationship, because they idealize the Other Thing, but they canā€™t very well Be that way, because itā€™s like, Choose the Right Answer, OR go fuck yourself: but youā€™ve got to choose! (And Bidenā€™s a Democrat!)

But itā€™s like, Prayer is supposed to change your quality, not just give you a quantity of this or that kind of knowledge, and one of the qualities is honesty, right. (You go on and be in relationship with me. Go on, then. Run along.)

But, I donā€™t know, in Opposite Day World thereā€™d be a lot of good to it. Strength leaning on relationship, empowering both.

And anyway, if Matt Damon can get traumatized and lose his memory and wake up and find out that heā€™s a spy or whatever, I just think thatā€™s great, you know. It did something for me. It made me feel good.

ā€¦. Apparently Robbie believed in conspiracy theories, or at least he ā€œbelievedā€ in conspiracies for the purposes of writing novels, and Iā€™m a Six, you know, Iā€™m asleep beneath Odinā€™s tree, even if I am an Aquarius (no idea whatā€™s normal and what isnā€™t), but itā€™s just such rocking, rolling entertainment to have Matt Damon fight the global terrorist-authoritarian conspiracy of evil, you know. Maybe Robbie wasnā€™t even really that paranoid, who knows. (Who cares! Even if he was, he did something good!)

ā€¦. Iā€™m not sure whether itā€™s chauvie or not, you know. Itā€™s not as obviously non-chauvie as the Zig & Nola guyā€”thatā€™s very non-chauvie for a thrillerā€”but it also doesnā€™t seem as bad as what I imagined some of the books I decided not to read were. So I donā€™t know. Itā€™s def Eight on the Enneagramā€”ā€˜real manā€™, but without too much connection to Five, serious ideology, and itā€™s not huge into Two either, although there is a woman, but itā€™s just kinda Eight leaning on I guess a Nine; Matt Damonā€™s going to kick some serious ass for six hundred pages, and itā€™ll be great. I donā€™t watch many movies, and Iā€™m sure they have different qualities due to the length, and maybe Iā€™ll watch the movie too, but I donā€™t think this was an inferior production. And maybe it wasnā€™t even chauvie, you knowā€”itā€™s just, ā€˜badā€™, lol.

ā€¦. So, you know, yeah. Life is an adventure; sometimes men with guns come after youā€¦. Thereā€™s a certain truth to it.

ā€¦. Itā€™s actually not too bad.

ā€¦. ā€”Oh, God! Did I kill that man! Was it me?

Books are usually good. In practically all video games, youā€™d just be happy to have a rifle, a job, and a pay out; you wouldnā€™t care. In a lot of TV you wouldnā€™t care, either, although I guess the video game would be worse.

ā€¦. It is very Americanā€”one man versus the system. I guess that IS our system; we have a strange system! At least it makes me feel like we have our own way, despite the problems with it, and that weā€™re not JUST wannabe-Nazis, you know; although obviously this is a conspiracy thriller and not a patriotic thriller. We let a lot of devils loose in Vietnam!

ā€¦. But even devils fall in love, Jason; donā€™t say youā€™re not worthyā€¦.

ā€¦. Neither oneā€™s a straight romance, although adventures ARE romances and vice versa, but itā€™s actually a lot more ā€˜romanticā€™ than the Irish Village book I read, a ā€˜feminineā€™ ā€˜cozyā€™ adventure, (although thereā€™s still a murder, lol). That oneā€™s very la la la, ho ho ho, maybe you killed someone; I donā€™t know; letā€™s dance and drink some scotchā€”with a ha ha ha, ho ho hoā€¦. Merry old land of Oz.

This is less comedic, but more romantic. Itā€™s a real dizzying, fuck-up-your-life romance; a really ā€œgoodā€ one, you know.

I really should make some money doing SOMETHING, you know. Make business friendsā€¦.

ā€¦. And was there a world before smartphones? Even though they had handguns? Interestingā€¦. šŸ˜ø

ā€¦. Curiouser and curiouser: itā€™s like a psychedelic Alice, you know. Actually a psychedelics cult is the Only thing that I think could make it stranger and cooler, but I guess the Cold War crap is cool too. Office workerā€¦. Vengeance. Code name: Office workerā€¦. Assassination! šŸ„ø

(And I almost believe some of what he says or whatever that he thinks about America. I think you can be an empire or whatever and a democracyā€”an empire that responds to popular pressure; popular greed, basically: popular power and popular violenceā€”but thereā€™s really no way that you can be dominant and idealistic. Power corrupts, right. One nation isnā€™t meant to rule the world as though this were LOTR or something šŸ§Œ

ā€¦. (Harrison Ford or somebody backing up slowly because thereā€™s a gun on himā€”itā€™s funny Matt Damon got this part, it must have been great for him and good for him heā€™s so handsome, but itā€™s like, itā€™s funny because you think of Matt you donā€™t think ā€˜Delta is for Charlie and Charlie is for Cainā€™, you know, itā€™s funnyā€¦. Anyway: Harrison Ford backing up) Listen, buddy: youā€™re making a big mistake hereā€”this has all been just a big, BIG misunderstanding, basically from a word ā€˜Goā€™, you knowā€¦. I mean, you donā€™t have all the information. Even Eye I donā€™t have all the information, and Iā€” (he unintentionally trips over something and then thereā€™s an action sequence)

ā€¦. Obvs is a very un-Jane-like novel, but itā€™s also a sort of Northā€™s Anger Cafe book: she almost comes out and says in that book that we ruin things for ourselves by saying that it doesnā€™t matter how we feel, you know. ā€œNovels just make you feel good. (makes face)ā€. But we canā€™t usually accept that really, nor should we, in the overwhelming majority of situations, at the very least.

ā€¦. I kinda like it when he says ā€˜Delta is for Charlie and Charlie is for Cainā€™; itā€™s boss, you know. šŸ˜øšŸ˜ŽšŸ„ø

ā€¦. (near-climax) Hermes Child: Awww, the man found his heart! The man is good! He found his heart, mommy! (beat) And I love my heart.

(twenty minutes later) (whispers and guns) The man is bad. Heā€™ll never find his heart! He hasnā€™t got one!
Harrison Ford: (hands) You guys, this has all been a big, big! misunderstandingā€¦. Say, you wouldnā€™t have a drink, would you?

ā€¦. Obi-Wan Kenobi: That was not a very good book, Harrison. It was rather, ā€œbadā€. Not nice.
Harrison Ford: (slurred speech) Well, I think it WAS goodā€”in fact, it was great! It was shouper! Hic! Super!
Princess Leia: Youā€™re a schmuck, Harrison. I hate you.
Harrison Ford: But youā€™ll marry me someday! Hic! Deep down, you love me!! Hic!

ā€¦. Itā€™s a ā€œbadā€ book, but I like it. I read a lot of the ā€œgoodā€ books, some of which actually carry their ponderous weight well, but you read what people write about them, and a lot of it is just this screen of prestige promotion and indecision and hiding behind the standard opinions, you know. Itā€™s nice sometimes to honor a book, a thought, because it is a book or a thought, even if itā€™s not an intellectual book or thought.

And itā€™s not stupid.