The Mezzanine is a novel which reminds us to stop and smell the roses. As busy individuals it is easy to finds oneself caught up in large problems and obstacles, when the most beautiful and enjoyable part of life might be in the details. Baker expertly conveys this throughout this book. His character is as relatable as he is unique and as compelling as he is pedestrian.
It is easy to be drawn to Howie as he is able to articulate a large part of the human thought process in ways that we ourselves might not be capable of. In my mind at least, I find myself often engaging in the speculation and hypothesization that Howie so clearly maps out throughout the pages of his work. I find it extremely attention-grabbing, therefore, that an author was able to put my thoughts to paper in some respect.
Overall we can take a lot of inspiration from Howie. While he is lucky in that his life is unobstructed by obstacles, he has also managed to achieve a level of contentment that most members of society could only dream of. Because of this, I'm going to be a little more like Howie, and stop and smell the roses from time to time.
I think Howie metaphorically stops to smell the roses a lot more than time to time lol, almost every part of the book had him delving into another insignificant topic.
ReplyDeleteYeh, I agree a criticism of this book is that one could argue Howie is just such a privileged guy, having a comfortable decent paying job and not much real adversity to concern himself with. He's spending his whole day worrying about a cream cheese and olive samdwich, not worrying about supporting his kids or something. Is this narrative totally relatable for everyone, maybe not.
ReplyDeleteBut, without sounding prejudiced, there are so many different types of lives people lead. Not every narrative has to be about some grand problems, just as not everyone's life isn't constantly dealing with grand problems.
I agree with the general idea that there's a strong element of "stop and smell the roses" in this book, in the sense of compelling readers to slow down and pay closer attention to all of the little details in life. But it's also an interesting deviation from this Romantic ideal, as Howie very rarely appreciates "Nature" as such--even when he's praising the trees outside his office building, they are evenly spaced, urban-landscaped decorative trees; he's not out in the woods having a Wordsworth moment. Howie's "romantic" appreciation is almost always focused on human-made material and commercial items, with particular attention to the evidence of human ingenuity and genius that they reflect. It's more like "stop and dig the staplers" or "stop and smell the microwaved popcorn."
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean most people would love to end up in a life like Howie's purely because it makes Howie happy. And really all most people are looking for in their life is happiness so living a life like Howie's is quite desirable. I don't really see how you got the idea that the pages were planned out. To me it seemed like it was written as the Howie remembered and thought of things and then we were dragged into those memories and thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI think as people, we've been raised with different ambitions, different goals, and different lifestyles. While it is desirable to reach the emotional level of contentment that Howie seems to feel, I am not very sure that everyone in the world would, in Howie's position feel content as him. We must all find our own paths to reach this peace and equilibrium with modern life.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great point. Howie is, perhaps paradoxically, both the main character and a leaf floating down the steady "stream of life". While narrating, he maintains a tone of clarity and peacefulness that, as you stated, not many people are able to. He takes conflicts and events in his life with a nonchalant "It is what it is" attitude, and constantly smells the roses of meaningful connections to childhood memories. Maybe if more people could take like Howie and appreciate the small things in their own lives rather than mind other peoples' business, the world would be a little bit better.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that a lot of people would strive for how Howie looks at life, as he seems content and has an outlook on life that reminds of how I looked at the world as a child. Although to a lot of people, having an office job like this with no real aspirations in life would bore them and make them miserable. But he found his path to peace and happiness in his life, which is really what we are all looking for.
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