September 24, 2010
People in real life
I am an enormous fan of people in real life, which was why I was very glad to welcome Nathalie and Julia to my house yesterday as part of the “people around in the daytime” collective. We met for the purposes of pie, a date set ages ago, and it did not disappoint. Neither guest argued (to my face) with my pie’s alleged status as “best in Toronto”, which was kind of them (and maybe even genuine? Seriously. I make good pie. It is the one thing I’m pretty much 100% confident about). There was also cheese, and wine, (and Lesley Stowe crackers— I could eat these until I died) which pretty much certified the afternoon as the very best ever, and we talked about books, and writing, and blogging, and Harriet fell in love with Nathalie’s five-year old.
It’s nice that somebody in my family goes to work so I can have this kind of life, and I was kind enough to save him leftovers.
I’m a fan of people in real life, too!! Now I can hear you as I read you. And, yes, the praise for the pie was real, so real.
Kerry, you rock. However, I want to go back to our Jonathan Franzen discussion. I finished the book and am in total and complete awe. It came together! Not only that, but it came together meaningfully and beautifully and had me crying at 1 am (books never keep me up late anymore, call it age) — how he managed to redeem those characters is nothing short of miraculous. OK, the Tolstoy connection was a bit much (I would have much rather get there on my own), I’ll give him that, but by the end, I could have read on about the Berglunds for another 500 pages. He has a way of writing life in all its messiness and ugliness. And, of course, the birds… I’ll admit, I came to love Walter and his birds. (though maybe I liked that strange lady Linda best of all).
The birds made me think of you, Julia! And I liked Walter too, very much, but I could NOT have stomached another page of the Berglunds. The Berglunds at about a 300 page count would have been PERFECT for me. But I know I am an anomaly here– Freedom is getting a lot of love, and it must be deserved.
You are both tempting me out of my refusnik stand….
I think you should stay there, Nathalie. But I am in a minority, as I said.