— Up at the crack of dawn. Three loads of laundry. I do try to take time to revel in simple pleasures. And this morning, sitting in the laundromat, it wasn’t even 9 a.m. yet … staring at the white suds swirling around my clothes, my socks … sudsing up the window … I got this overwhelming feeling of well-being, and “god’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world” … Clean laundry. One of life’s simplest pleasures. Also: getting it all done before 10:15 a.m. on a sunny Saturday, when you have the rest of the day spread out before you … Another one of life’s simple pleasures.<\/p>\n
— Drinking coffee and reading Charming Billy<\/i>. A lovely work of fiction. I am truly engaged with it, and the title is completely a propos. McDermott does not disappoint. Her title tells us that “Billy” is “charming”, and he IS. She delivers. She does so, not ever by saying: “Billy was a charming man” – but in showing us how he engages strangers in conversation, how he made a sad-faced woman laugh, how children climbed all over him … She describes these parts of his personality, and I caught myself thinking from time to time: “Man, I really would have liked to have known Billy.” The novel is heartbreaking, too, but not in a dramatic way. It’s the heartbreak of having dreams gone bust, of having love not worked out, of having chosen a second path. I love how the story is told in all different voices, a continuation of some oral tradition, sure – but also – because that’s how it is in big families. The stories get passed around.<\/p>\n
— Going to the Diane Arbus show <\/a>at the Met today. Diane Arbus – a lightning rod for controversy. Always has been. Her photographs disgust me on a kind of Geek Love<\/i> level. It’s a traffic accident, you cannot look away. I wonder what her POINT is, what she wants me to THINK about her photographs … but Arbus never insists on a point-of-view from the viewer. I think that’s why her work is unsettling to me. I want her to come to some kind of CONCLUSION, and she consistently refuses to do so. Anyway, I am excited to check it out.<\/p>\n — Palm Sunday tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" — Up at the crack of dawn. Three loads of laundry. I do try to take time to revel in simple pleasures. And this morning, sitting in the laundromat, it wasn’t even 9 a.m. yet … staring at the white … Continue reading