Continuing with my reading of books by Julian Barnes, I read The Porcupine recently.

I found it at a second hand bookstore in a condition worse for wear and sticky taped it back together again. It was only $2, it’s pages brown and brittle, as I turned them they’d split from the spine.

I found this book difficult to read as it was about Eastern European politics. There was a lot that went over my head but enough to understand that you could be sitting on one side of politics one time (and thinking you’re doing good for your country) and then on the other side another time (and become enemy of the state) and vice versa.

I’ve been reading a lot of books with such themes this year. Spaceman of Bohemia is an excellent book – and movie on Netflix – that shows this. Ultimately the people who get hurt are the populace as the generations live through the pain of the political regime in power.