The whole world over
I love the book I'm reading! I knew I would fall for it when the first section was called "A Piece of Cake," the epigraph was a Dr. Seuss quote about cake, and one of the main characters is a baker. (Along these lines, I also love the book Pastries by Bharti Kirchner, about two rival bakeries in Seattle. It almost made me want to jump on a plane and sample the goods, but I remembered it was only fiction and Seattle is pretty rainy. I'd take snow over rain any day, except maybe in the summer, because that would be strange.)
The book I'm reading now is called The Whole World Over by Julia Glass. I actually like it better than her previous book, Three Junes, which won the National Book Award. Part of it, I'll admit, is the baker thing and the fact that it's set in New York, a very familiar world for me. I'm always fascinated by the different ways people see New York, which makes it a million different cities all at once.
The Whole World Over has some similarities to Three Junes - multiple narrators (which some might find schizophrenic but I like relief from the same voice) and different narratives that start to weave together seamlessly as people from the separate stories cross paths and connect. That always makes a novel seem more real to me, because life (in New York, anyway) is full of meetings and connections. I ran into AT on the street shortly after 9/11 - I hadn't seen him more than once since college - and that was when D and I really got to know him.
(I remember that day, AT told me he was trying to have a discussion with his elementary-school students about 9/11, but they were just fascinated with his new beard. "How do you feel about 9/11?" he asked them. "Is that a new beard?" they asked him. "How long did it take you to grow it?")
In other news, I might have dinner with a 3-year-old (and her parents) on Friday. The 3-year-old is enamoured of V & T, a fun, unpretentious red-sauce place near Columbia. I wonder if she would like to share my baked ziti.
The book I'm reading now is called The Whole World Over by Julia Glass. I actually like it better than her previous book, Three Junes, which won the National Book Award. Part of it, I'll admit, is the baker thing and the fact that it's set in New York, a very familiar world for me. I'm always fascinated by the different ways people see New York, which makes it a million different cities all at once.
The Whole World Over has some similarities to Three Junes - multiple narrators (which some might find schizophrenic but I like relief from the same voice) and different narratives that start to weave together seamlessly as people from the separate stories cross paths and connect. That always makes a novel seem more real to me, because life (in New York, anyway) is full of meetings and connections. I ran into AT on the street shortly after 9/11 - I hadn't seen him more than once since college - and that was when D and I really got to know him.
(I remember that day, AT told me he was trying to have a discussion with his elementary-school students about 9/11, but they were just fascinated with his new beard. "How do you feel about 9/11?" he asked them. "Is that a new beard?" they asked him. "How long did it take you to grow it?")
In other news, I might have dinner with a 3-year-old (and her parents) on Friday. The 3-year-old is enamoured of V & T, a fun, unpretentious red-sauce place near Columbia. I wonder if she would like to share my baked ziti.
Comments
You dislike rain that much? Seattle is not as rainy as people would have you believe.
kitkat - i liked her character and job, too. i guess she's one of my favorite actresses. rain does bother me...something about all the grayness is depressing.
Then again, the prospect of getting up super early every day isn't too appealing....
I'm putting "Pastries" on my hold list at the library now...
I agree with you - it's fun to read about a locale when you are intimately familiar with it. You can relate to it and you get to see someone else's perspective of it, too. I find that it's interesting to read novels that take place in Boston...and even NY for that matter (even though I've only visited NY a few times and never lived there).
BTW, you should try Mike's Pastry in the North End the next time you're in town. All the pastries I've had there are "to die for".
Suzy - thanks for the recommendation!
elsa - i'll have to try them!