Shaved Meats, Piled High: October 2018
The Things We Carry -- and The Things We Don't
Since the Mystery Box was introduced last year, I have kept its contents a secret. But as I go deeper and deeper into my shelves to select a dozen books for one lucky recipient, I find I am making choices worthy of examination.
This month, for example, I will let go of a copy of The Life and Loves of a She Devil, by Fay Weldon. My paperback copy has to be at least 30 years old because it pre-dates the (not very good) film version. I don't remember why or where I bought it, but if it was before 1989 as I suspect, then I have boxed up this book and moved it at least three times. But I have not revisited it since I first read it in the late 1980s.
I remembered liking it -- Weldon has a cool, dry wit -- and being surprised by the ending. I re-read the ending to check my memory (pretty spot-on) and, as Elsa sings, then let it go.
My daughter asked me recently if I was always anti-hoarding, although not in those exact words. Far from it and I'm not exactly a minimalist now. I have much more storage space than most people do, which allows me to keep a lot of stuff. And like most people, I'm immune to my own clutter -- I leave my shoes everywhere -- while I'm sensitive to my daughter's toys when they escape the confines of her room and the den. (Legos! Legos! LEGOS! They are clearly mating.)
But when I was 41 and my first marriage ended, the men I hired to clean my house in preparation for its sale made a mistake. They threw away everything in the basement. I mean -- everything. This included boxes of mementoes, such as my camp newsletters and -- well, I don't remember what else was in those boxes. I was upset for a few days and then I just didn't care.
Meanwhile, my daughter apologizes to toys she doesn't buy and wants to keep everything she finds on Baltimore's streets, which is, um, not good. But she was right about this one branch. It's a keeper.
READ/READING: All Over the Place, Geraldine DeRuiter; Transcription, Kate Atkinson; All You Can Ever Know, Nicole Chung; Gone So Long, Andre Dubus III; These Truths, Jill Lepore. Also have Rebecca Traister and Pat Barker in the on-deck circle.
REREAD: One Summer, Bill Bryson; Sorority Girl, Anne Emery; The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark.
ME, ME, ME: Achievements unlocked: I published my first children's cook, Liza Jane and the Dragon, on October 2, and then made the New York Times travel section on October 14.
Laura Lippman
October 2018