Listeria!
In all the years I’ve been grocery shopping, I’ve never bought or consumed a food that was later recalled for some kind of bacterial contamination. Until now.
Ben and I ended up with some Boar’s Head ham in our refrigerator (and stomachs). While it wasn’t the sketchy liverwurst that seemed to be the problem, this came just as I was suffering from diverticulitis (and a through-the-roof white blood cell count) as a consequence of gluten poisoning. At least I was already on antibiotics!
We’ll never know if our meat was contaminated, but King Soopers refunded us the cost and so far, we’re just fine.
The Mind’s Eye
The other day, I read an article distributed by The Browser (a weekly email feed I’m addicted to) about aphantasia, which is an inability to see things in a “mind’s eye,” and hyperphantasia, the opposite phenomenon in which people report mental imagery as vivid as reality. The two “phantasias” are at two ends of a spectrum, sandwiching an infinite range of interior, mental experiences between them. (The article was written by Yasemin Saplakoglu in the August 1 Quanta Magazine.)
I was relieved to read about hyperphantasia, in particular, because I had imagined and wrote about such an experience in The Candlemaker’s Woman. In that scene, the protagonist Melia is in labor and sees a monster that looks like her former slaveowner, Hermann, hovering over her menacingly and terrifyingly as she is giving birth to her baby. I didn’t know if people had such experiences, but after reading the Quanta article, I realized that my depiction of that frightening apparition could indeed happen.
Sometimes, it’s scary to let your imagination run like I did in that scene of my book. But this time, at least, it doesn’t seem like it was a big mistake.
Happy endings
I was surprised recently when a friend who had read The Candlemaker’s Woman called me to thank me. “For what?” I asked. “For the happy ending,” she said.
I wasn’t surprised that she liked the ending (I like it, too), but I was surprised that she took the time to tell me that. I know that people like happy endings (well, anybody but the NYT Book Review, where happy endings are frequently dissed as proof of amateur writers and unsophisticated readers). But on the other hand, I understand that there are times when the novel’s message prohibits a conventionally happy ending.
An example: Jess Walter’s book Citizen Vince has an ending that makes it clear that Vince has learned important lessons about life through his journey through the narrative. (SPOILER—stop now if you haven’t read it and intend to.) But he’s off to prison at the end, which doesn’t seem very rewarding. For that he was accosted by a woman at a reading in San Francisco. “Why would I want to read a book that didn’t have a happy ending?” she complained. Walter reports that he responded that he thought it was happy, and I understand why he said that. His protagonist, flawed but relatable, had been changed for the better by his epiphany. But clearly, that didn’t satisfy everyone.
I’m guilty of craving happy endings, too. I asked the universe, upon finishing Long Island by Colm
Tóibín, why after two complete novels he couldn’t figure out how to get the two lovers together. Of course, I understand the book is about unreconcilable love triangles, but, still!
I’m curious, readers, what your thoughts are about happy endings versus ambiguous endings, versus disappointing endings. Are you displeased when a book ends with a less-than-positive denouement? (Remember that word from English 101?) Let me know in the comments below.
Work in Progress
While I’m busy marketing The Candlemaker’s Woman on Facebook, and looking for an agent to represent my new contemporary novel, What I’d Do to Save Her, I’ve put off writing my next book. I have three in mind, but I seem to be a little too scatter-brained now to dive in. Instead, I’m reformatting and will re-release two series I’ve published before: the three-book Johnson Station Novels and three novellas published in one book, Romancing the Dog.
I know some people think formatting is easy. You just copy and paste, right? Well, not so fast. With each page, there are issues of hyphenation and widows/orphans that need to be addressed. And each chapter heading must be formatted exactly the same. And if you change fonts from one edition to the next, everything must be redone. So, it’s taking a while, but I hope to have both new series out by the time the Colorado Authors League joins the Christmas Show at the new Denver Stockyards November 22.
Books of the month
I’ve been a reading dervish this past month. Among my reads were Night Boat to Tangier, which I read on the occasion of my friend Janet’s visit to Tangier, Citizen Vince, which I read because I’m taking a master class from Jess Walter in November, Thursday Murder Club, which I read only because it was chosen for one of my book clubs, Death Comes for the Archbishop, which I had read decades ago but decided to re-read the new edition put out by Penguin this year, Labor Day, Briar Club, Liars, and Stars Go Blue.
After I read Labor Day, Ben and I decided to watch the movie based on the book. FYI: The book is much better. I skimmed the last part of Stars Go Blue because the author took way too many words (and too much time) to finish the story, even though the book isn’t long. Briar Club is set in the time of the House Unamerican Activities Committee hearings, and for that reason, I thought it was worth my time. (Anything but WWII, please.) Citizen Vince wasn’t my favorite Jess Walter book (The Cold Millions was), but it is fun to read such a skillful novelist. And I don’t get why people are so enamored of the Thursday Murder Club, which I found predictable, shallow, and of only mediocre writing.
Enough. I have another tableful of books for September, and I can’t wait to get started! Tell me what you’re reading and what you’ve read recently that you recommend. I’m always looking for suggestions.
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