Hello! In my last post, way back in February, I mentioned that posting would be light, and here I am, back again in May. This spring has been very busy, with lots of classes to teach, a toddler to chase after, and a house to sell. As it turns out, our house hasn’t sold, but we have found a tenant to rent it, and we have also found the house we’d like to buy. We should be moving in a week or two, although the actual moving date remains maddeningly elusive. Does the house-buying process ever go smoothly? I’m thinking that it doesn’t.
At any rate, I’ve squeezed in reading when I can. I’m not reading very fast these days, but that’s okay; at least I’m reading steadily. Two of the highlights of the last couple months have been Leslie Jamison’s The Empathy Exams and Jenny Offill’s Dept. of Speculation. The first is an essay collection that has been a surprise best seller, because when are essay collections ever best sellers? But this one is worth the hype I think. I only wish more essay collections got this much hype, because there are others that are equally worth it. But something about Jamison’s book is striking a chord with readers right now. What I liked most in the essays is the combination of sharp intellect and emotional wisdom. Jamison does what great essayists do: grapples with ideas and experiences and lets us see the results on the page. She writes about herself, but she doesn’t write only about herself. Her range of topics is broad, but the essays are thematically connected and feel like a coherent whole. She is a good guide to experience.
The other book, Dept. of Speculation, is a short novel about domestic subjects — motherhood, marriage — and also about trying to create art. What makes it distinctive is its style and its voice: it’s written in a fragmentary way so that while the pieces all fit together into a story (of sorts), the short sections jump from topic to topic, idea to idea, so we are left to piece it all together. It’s not that this is hard work, though. I loved the main character’s puzzled, struggling, combative attitude toward the world around her. Her observations about new motherhood are so true as to be almost painful for this new mother to read. I checked this book out of the library, but I need to get my own copy so I can reread it. (I also plan to spend some time with this list of books that influenced Offill’s writing.)
And now I’m off to read a little Trollope (Can You Forgive Her?) before bedtime. I hope all of you have fabulous books to read as well!
Of Books and Bicycles 