Monthly Archives: November 2008

a mercy

Posted on November 28, 2008 by cynthia

I just finished Toni Morrison‘s new novel, A Mercy.   Which was amazing.  Yet I now regret that, while I was reading it, I spent so much time trying to figure out the story.   I believe that if I had just let myself succumb to … Continue reading →

Posted in Pam Houston, Toni Morrison, reviews, words | Tagged | 1 Comment

having eaten

Posted on November 27, 2008 by cynthia

Jane Hirshfield writes:   Having eaten the pears. Having eaten the black figs, the white figs.  Eaten the apples.   Table be strewn. Table be strewn with stems, table with peelings of grapefruit and pleasure.   Table be strewn with … Continue reading →

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concatenate

Posted on November 26, 2008 by cynthia

In Remembering the Bone House, Nancy Mairs writes, “Here I develop that ability to concatenate events which characterizes human consciousness and makes ‘daily life’ possible.” I had to look it up.  To concatenate is to link together, as in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Nancy Mairs, life, shapes, words | Tagged | 1 Comment

the yellow house

Posted on November 24, 2008 by cynthia

Remembering the Bone House is one of my all-time favorite books.  Nancy Mairs wrote this memoir in 1989.  It was out of print for a while, but then Beacon Press did a new printing in 1995, for which the author wrote … Continue reading →

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rough red brick

Posted on November 21, 2008 by cynthia

The Gathering, by Irish writer Anne Enright, won the 2007 Man Booker Prize.  I read it in April.  In this novel, the narrator describes her family of origin in terms of the labels we acquire, as families and as individuals in a family. “The … Continue reading →

Posted in Anne Enright, awards and prizes, craft of writing, family, marriage, memory, reviews, truth | Tagged | 1 Comment

folded

Posted on November 19, 2008 by cynthia

If I weren’t reading all of Rachel Cusk‘s books to look at how her writing develops over time, I would not have finished her sixth book, In the Fold, published in 2005.  As one reviewer wrote, “too little happened to too many people.”  Or … Continue reading →

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wonder

Posted on November 17, 2008 by cynthia

“I wonder what it would be like,” she said to me on one of those days that make you feel that you have chosen the right profession, “if I could once and for all get my mother out of my … Continue reading →

Posted in Pam Houston, dialogue | Tagged | 1 Comment

companion

Posted on November 15, 2008 by cynthia

Just as Home, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award in Fiction, has been called a companion to Gilead, this post is a companion to yesterday’s.  Prompted by comments, I wanted to add that if you enjoyed Housekeeping, Marilynne … Continue reading →

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home

Posted on November 14, 2008 by cynthia

For anyone who enjoyed Gilead, Marilynne Robinson‘s second novel, which won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, you will love her new novel, Home.  For she has just crossed town, so to speak, and turned around to tell us the story … Continue reading →

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who would you be

Posted on November 11, 2008 by cynthia

“That’s not what she means,” I said.  “She means, like, we are what’s happened to us.  So if you take away what’s happened to us, then, you know…Well, who would you be?” “I’d be someone different.” “Exactly.” Dialogue from Nick … Continue reading →

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