Friday, September 17, 2010

The Treasure

Day 221 of the "What are you reading, and why?" project, and Oprah Winfrey and a lot of other people are reading Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen, and I think you already know why.  It's the Oprah pick.

I appreciated The Corrections, and I see why people longed for a follow-up.  You care about the people!  You wish they wouldn't waste their lives.  But, hey, lots of us waste our lives.  That's why we care about these people!

Meanwhile, I am finally getting around to reading the Summer 2010 Granta, a literary treasure.  At least I am in the right year, and, yes, the right season, as fall has not quite struck, even if most of the ads in the journal are already outdated.  Excellent writing, as usual.  I always learn so much!  Stories about Khartoum, about Nigeria....

But I was blown away by "The Last Thing We Need," a short story by Claire Vaye Watkins, a story in letters, even!  I love reading fiction that makes me ache, that makes me want to connect to other people while I can, while we are alive together.

I wrote a poem today.  And tonight I will see a play, Woman in Mind, by Alan Ayckbourn.  I get to sit with my mom and dad.  Life is a treasure.

4 comments:

JulieK said...

I am anxious to hear what you think of WOMAN IN MIND. I do so love that play. Sigh. I saw it at dress rehearsal and I will see it again tomorrow night.

Kathleen said...

Julie, when I wrote my little blog entry, I had forgotten how pertinent my words were to the play! The sense of waste and of lack/loss of connection to the people in our lives, to the life we are given to live, comes so poignantly true, and, sadly, hilariously true in Woman in Mind. Reminds me not to live too much in my mind. So does a recent scientific study suggesting that people who think too much and are too sure they are right have terrible origami folds in their frontal lobe!

Fortunately, I am never very sure I am right!

Kathleen said...

But my brain IS origami.

ron hardy said...

I was going to say Kathleen... Nice save. I am shooting for a table napkin. My brain that is. Smile.