Serepax

Because the world needs more overwrought candour.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

I'm reading The Corrections at the moment, months behind everyone else of course, but at least I've got there. I found it at a friend's beach house, devoured a third of it and then, sadly, had to leave it on a chair. I bought it when I got back, but managed to completely forget another friend's birthday, and handed it over with a heavy heart. The third time our paths crossed has been luckier; halfway through, and it still hasn't disappeared.

Dear Lordy but it's good. So good that it makes my humble ambition of writing a book (one day, when I've lived a bit more) wither a little. Why go through the mundane and tortuous process of birthing a book when such monsters of intellect, character and humanity walk amongst us? I think every writer gets this though, when reading someone marvellous. Still. I salute you, Jonathan Franzen . I admire you, and the other (mostly) American writers, like DeLillo, who are re-mysticizing our lives in Western suburbia, making the stories of the present rival those of the past.