I actually just finished the book a few days ago, but didn't take the time to do the blog posts until now, so here we go. The posts will be in order of the book's plot by reference and excerpts from the book.
One of the things that I admire about the way the book is written is the way that differences in ethnicity, religion, and everything else is mentioned casually and without pause which displays a great sense of openness to the differences in people as nothing needing explanation or justification. He knows the feeling of falling victim to prejudices, which is why he makes a point of never imposing such feelings upon anyone else. Without any pause in the flow of the writing, Dave Eggers, writing from the recollection of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, notes, "Rob had a similar predicament. His husband, Walt Thompson, was like Zeitoun-bullheaded," (39). There is no reference to them anywhere in the book as a 'gay' couple, but merely as a couple, which is the kind of absolute equality and acceptance that would be found in a Utopian society. It is not recognition of being a gay couple and accepting that, but accepting them as a couple, just a couple, that displays true equality.
I really appreciated the comment that you said saying "in the book as a gay couple, but merely as a couple..." I really do not understand why gay rights are an issue, like you said it should not be called gay rights, it is just rights of American people. Our government has no right how to tell a person that they cannot get married to a person that they love. This is not a constitutional issue, in fact it is not an issue at all. If there are two people who love each other they have the right to get married, regardless of gender. I think love should be celebrated rather than restricted, because to find love is something very special and the government has no right to take that away from anyone. Taking away rights of gay people is unconstitutional. To me I really do not see how this can be an issue.
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