Last weekend, I invented a pie. I wanted a summer pie, a cold pie, a creamy pie, a citrus pie– something that would taste good in the dog days of August. I don’t like lemon meringue pie– meringue to me is too unsatisfying, a cloud of sugar-sweet nothing similar to cotton candy, and the meringue …
Month: August 2020
A Novel’s Story, Part 3
Nearly two years ago, I was talking on the phone with my older sister Emily, who lives in Colorado. Somehow the topic of my long-abandoned novel came up. I confessed to her that even though I was 29 and ought to have long-ago outgrown the story and characters that had originated in my 12-year-old brain, …
Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro
When I say that a book is a "favorite" of mine, what I mean is that I have read it multiple times, always enjoying it as much or even more than the previous time, and I know that I will read it again in the future. Each time I read it I find something fresh …
Little Fires Everywhere
The story is the battle between suburbia and bohemianism, and the deck is stacked. It’s obvious almost from the beginning that suburbia is going to lose, and that we are meant to rejoice in its downfall. And while I think that a thoughtful critique of suburbia is warranted and valuable, the heavy-handedness, almost preachiness, of …