January 14, 2007
Stu is fine
Zadie Smith’s article on writing fiction is gorgeous, but gut-wrenching (or at least I thought so). “To become better readers and writers we have to ask of each other a little bit more.” Here for what happens to a poem when it rhymes. Harper Lee attends a student performance of To Kill a Mockingbird. They like My Wedding Dress in this review.
We’ve had a wonderful weekend. Out to Thai Basil Friday night, and the food was delicious. Andrea and Chris (of that valuable internet resource www.chrislev.com) came for dinner last night, and we partook in Apples to Apples with great joy. We’ve done a lot of relaxing too, which is fine as Stuart has to get up early tomorrow morning to fly to Montreal for a meeting. (How exciting!)
Speaking of Stuart, his family has reported that they don’t get enough Stuart updates here at Pickle Me This. You see, they live faraway across the sea, and six days out of seven, this site is their only portal into their dear son’s world. (And on the seventh day, there is the telephone). Perhaps I should start a blog devoted to Stuart, like Mama Bloggers do with their wee ones. With photos of Stu’s latest antics, and anecdotes about the cute things he says, and photos of him in bathtubs or sandboxes with other kids his age. Not that he gets up to much of that so often. And I’m not sure that Stuart would be too impressed with so much attention. We may just have to stick with our periodic updates, but rest assured that he’s doing just fine.
January 12, 2007
Peppermint Love
I’ve just learned that my household has acquired Apples to Apples, which is one of the most enjoyable games I’ve ever played. Though I hate most games so my perspective is limited, and this one is bound to infuriate serious game-lovers, as it has no rules. Though I still lost at it when we played, but I lose at all games. It’s my constitution. And so that’s fun news, and more fun is that I’ve got a date with my husband this eve. We’re having company for dinner tomorrow night and I’m looking forward to that (as well as a chance to break out the game?). And so life continues lamely, but nicely.
I finished rereading Alice Munro’s Who Do You Think you Are? yesterday. What an incredible book. I reread the legendary Lives of Girls and Women last summer, and wasn’t as impressed as I’d wanted to be. I think that Munro was constrained by “A Novel”, and Who Do You Think…, while definitely connected, was obviously composed of short stories and she’s better at that. In fact, she is extraordinary at that. I know I’m certainly not the first one to say so. It’s just nice to be reminded. And I’m now reading Noah Richler’s This Is My Country, What’s Yours?”, which is cool because the only other book on CanLit I’ve ever read was published in 1972, and certainly a lot has happened since then.
Here for an article on Richler’s and a few other unusual Canadian atlases, and their lessons on Canadian identity. 50,000 copies of Andrea Levy’s brilliant Small Island have been distributed through parts of Britain “to encourage reading, and discussion”. (Wonderful connections between Levy’s novel and Kate Atkinson’s work have just dawned on me). Here for Literary Pop Idolatry. Type Books in the press (and the business press to boot).
My new teapot is full of peppermint love, and I shall get down to an afternoon of glorious work.
January 12, 2007
Excellent. My plan is working.
Instead of just getting depressed, I’m going to start pretending to be an evil mastermind with plans toward world domination. When I’m listening to the radio and hear, for example, that whole cities were destroyed by flash floods, I will rub my hands together and said, “Eg-cellent. My plan is working.” If drug crime has run rampant throughout my neighbourhood, I will cackle with glee and exclaim, “Just as I’d expected.” 22% of Canadians are unable to read? “Finally– the pieces are coming together.” IF a mugger knocks me down in the street and steals my ipod shuffle (ha ha): “Cackle cackle, Sir,” I will say to him. “You are fulfilling your mission well.” The American President is going to win his failing war by expansion into Syria and Iran? “Ah, Mr. Bush,” I will say. “You are playing right into my hands.”
I have no expectations that this coping mechanism will result in a better world, but evil trumps lugubrious any day, and I just don’t think petitions work.
January 10, 2007
Questioning
Why, you might ask, given my love/hate (and mostly hate) relationship with anthologies, am I setting out to read My Wedding Dress: True-Life Tales of Lace, Laughter, Tears and Tulle?? I’ve got high(er than usual) hopes for this anthology though. I’m thinking the concrete focus will keep the essays from being too too awful; the text is interspersed with wedding photos (and I’d look at anyone’s wedding pics, strangers and otherwise); I want to read about Michelle Landsberg’s wedding dress; and mostly because I’ll have an excuse to write about my own dress. Which doesn’t even come with a fabulous story, but I talk about my own wedding with as much relish as I look at strangers’ wedding photos. Anyway, we shall see. In addition, I think the book is very well designed.
January 10, 2007
Human Croquet by Kate Atkinson
I really didn’t think it was possible. Kate Atkinson’s second novel Human Croquet might just be better than her brilliant Behind the Scenes at the Museum. There really aren’t words to do Atkinson’s own words justice. From doorstep babies to death by mushrooms, intertextual delights to incest, doppelgangers and the disappeared. The bad guy gets his comeuppance. Everybody wins.
January 10, 2007
January Classic
I’m back to work at the library this week, which of course means that I go home after most shifts with books in my bag. I picked up The Portable Chekhov today. It’s definitely not the 13 volume Chekhov that Francine Prose recommended, but it’s a start. I’m looking forward to it. It’s my January Classic actually: I’ve decided to read one 19th century book per month this year, just to keep up my credentials.
January 9, 2007
Shift
I’m about midway through the second draft of my long project, and I’ve decided to shift from first person to third. I’m not convinced it’s the right decision, but I have to try it out and see. And so I am going through my story carefully, changing all the ‘I’s to ‘she’, and no doubt missing quite a few. It’s good though, because at this point in my work, it’s effective to go through the entire story carefully and see how its functioning as a whole. Changing the narration forces me to go through it carefully. I also have a feeling that it will make my narrator more likeable.
January 9, 2007
Yo!
The number one surprising development of my Christmas Holidays was that I became obsessed with Rocky Balboa. I certainly didn’t see it coming. (Though I’ve never seen one, I’ve always struggled with the Rocky films, for as a child I confused Rocky with Rambo and didn’t understand how one character could be so multi-dimensional.) But on the day before Christmas Eve, we caught Rocky on TV Ontario (commercial free! how novel) and though I was supposed to be reading a book while my husband watched it, I soon put the book down and was enthralled. I loved it. I don’t really know why. I’ve always had a thing for working class Italian men with big dreams, hearts of gold and problems expressing themselves, however. In accordance then, I think I am soon going to rent Saturday Night Fever.
January 9, 2007
Joy
Joy was our dinner tonight with Natalie Bay at Okonomi House, where we partook in okonomiyaki– a wonderful Nippon treat. Oishi desu! And now home, and since I worked all afternoon, now I get to have a bath and read Human Croquet— which is brilliant. And then tune in to CSI Miami, where somebody gets killed by a bookshelf! How exciting.
