Rules of Civility

Surely the writing of legendary debut novels is not unprecedented.
[I think of Harper Lee, J.D. Salinger, or Flaubert].
Amor Towles is in that camp.
I don't know what he's smoking, but I want a few puffs.
I just finished reading Rules of Civility and recommend it to all my readers, without reservation. The blurb on the back of the dust jacket is no hyperbole -- "a voice influenced by Fitzgerald and Capote, but clearly true to itself."
The bulk of the story takes place in later 1930's New York. In this era of fortunes won and lost, 25-year old Katey Kontent finds herself tossed into the currents of poverty and extravagance that were a hallmark of the time.
The author wastes no time at all in having Katey and her flat-mate Eve meet up with the dashing and debonair banker, Tinker Grey. Through this chance encounter in a bar on New Year's Eve [1938], the girls are thrown from worrying about how far they can make their three or four dollars stretch, to having not a care in the world.
Well -- at least one of them will be afforded this new worldview.
A tragic accident causes Tinker to follow his conscience -- he devotes himself to the glamorous Eve... and kudos to her, she was really "working it" not just that first night, but thereafter, as well.
Or…. was she? Because, later, when he…. no, I won't say it -- I hate spoilers.
Where do the deepest affections of Mr. Grey really lie?
Or, for that matter, which of these women truly loves Tinker Grey?
What an engaging, thoroughly satisfying, searing and poignant story!
Albeit bittersweet.
Aren't all the best stories at least a bit of that?
Once-upon-a-time meets happily-ever-after, happily or not?
This a witty, well-crafted, wonderful book.
Whatever Mr. Towles has to smoke to top this novel -- I want some of that, too!
I close with a representative citation, from the penultimate page:
....life is less like a journey than it is a game of honeymoon bridge. In our twenties, when there is still so much time ahead of us, time that seems ample for a hundred indecisions, for a hundred visions and revisions -- we draw a card, and we must decide right then and there whether to keep that card and discard the next, or discard the first card and keep the second. And before we know it, the deck has been played out and the decisions we have just made will shape our lives for decades to come.
Go get it. Do it, now.
******

One Big Spider!

I live just down the street from The National Art Gallery of Canada, here in Ottawa.
In front of the Gallery stands a giant sculpture of a spider, created in 1999 by artist Louise Bourgeois, and installed in 2005.
I remember the very day, I watched them installing the thing with big cranes, and workmen countersinking the spider-feet into the stones.
Last weekend I was walking past just as a jet crossed the sky, leaving a vapor trail in perfect juxtaposition. I snapped this shot -- I thought the effect was as if the spider had just descended from outer space, on this slender white thread.
A couple more pics --> HERE.

Many thanks to Alyce for hosting this wonderful Saturday Snapshot meme.
*******

A Loss -- A Terrible Loss

This morning I clicked on my computer and saw two messages informing me of what had happened during the night.
One was from a commenter on my blogpage, the other, an email from my Reading Partner.
I felt an instant shock on both counts.
Of course, I knew that the days of Christopher Hitchens were numbered.
I guess I was somehow hoping that he could beat the odds.
But this writer, this amazingly astute thinker, a man I greatly admire -- he has slipped away from us in the night.
Christopher Hitchens was someone I think I would never tire of listening to. Someone who would so gamely point out to me that the sentence I had just written was grammatically incorrect.
I wish that just once in my life I could have sat and had a drink with him.
Hitchens, an atheist, taught me more about my current concept of "god" than probably anyone else in the world.
And so, I thank you for that, Mr. Hitchens.
What manner of words can I arrange, to summarize -- to eulogize such a man?
The attempt seems blasphemous to me.
The very word so many levelled at him.
Hitchens once said that he and a friend, contemplating their demise, had mused that there would come a day when the newspapers would come out and they wouldn’t be there to read them. “And on that day, I’ve realized recently,” he went on, “I’ll probably be in the newspapers, or quite a lot of them. And etiquette being what it is, generally speaking, rather nice things being said about me.” He shrugged. “Just typical that will be the edition I miss.”
You've missed today's newspaper Mr. Hitchens.
But not as much as I already miss you.
*******

Splash du Jour: Friday

As a quick aside, let me observe that in moments of high emotion -- whether they're triggered by anger or envy, humiliation or resentment -- if the next thing you're going to say makes you feel better, then it's probably the wrong thing to say.
-- Amore Towles, Rules of Civility --

Have a great Friday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Have a great Thursday!
******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Now, there is a wonderful thing in this world called "foresight". It is a gift treasured above all others because it allows one to know what the future holds. Most people with foresight end up wielding immense power in life, often becoming great rulers or librarians.
-- Jonathan Auxier, Peter Nimble & His Fantastic Eyes --
Have a great Wednesday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Have a great Tuesday!
******

The Hundredth Meridian

Can any good thing come out of Kingston, Ontario, Canada?
[John 1:46]
You bet it can.
Admittedly, a lot of bad things go in to Kingston for a bit of a stay, as it is home to Canada's most notable maximum security penitentiary, Canada's San Quentin, basically -- but one good thing has definitely come out of there!
The band Tragically Hip!
On the way home, I had to zap my radio up to full volume when this song came on -- it's an oldie, from 1992, [from the album entitled Fully Completely] but still as mindlessly relevant today as it was then. I remember when this song came out, I was living in British Columbia at the time. And I just loved this song, and still do.
So I couldn't wait to get home and hit my iTunes where I have a plethora of The Hip on eternal standby.
Funny story -- for a long while I always thought that Gordon Downie was saying, toward the end of this song, "get a RACCOON to sing my eulogy…." only a decade or so later did I realize he's saying, "get RY COODER to sing my eulogy."
I'd opt for a raccoon.
Think of how neat-o that would be!

To me, it's profound, that one line where he says, "It would seem to me, I remember every single * * * * in' thing I know!"
Because I do.
I do.

Splash du Jour: Monday

The notion of Florida brought mention of the Keys which brought memories to Tinker of reading Treasure Island as a boy and digging with his brother for backyard doubloons; which brought memories to both of us of Robinson Crusoe and daydreams of being stranded; which got us on the track of what two belongings we'd want in our pockets when we were eventually shipwrecked alone: for Tinker (sensibly) a jackknife and a flint; for me (insensibly) a pack of cards and Walden by Thoreau -- the only book in which infinity can be found on every other page.
-- from Rules of Civility, by Amor Towles --

Have a great Monday!
*******

'Tis The Season...

Firstly, in light of the common exigencies of Disclaimer Etiquette I must say that the above photo is in no way endorsed by the fine folks at Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is a reoriented shot of me at last Saturday's work Christmas Party.
I rotated it to the left.
The photographer was much better-positioned than I was at the time.
Anyone who has even an amateur dabbling in physics will know that beer will not angle itself down like that into the gullet, unless there is some sort of internal force driving it stomach-ward, other than gravity alone.
Some sort of funnel-effect.
To get the ACTUAL perspective of the original photo, you, the viewer, will have to tilt your own head to the extreme left side of yourself… basically ear to shoulder, which is not too far from my own cranial latitude, by the end of this night.
This year my gracious employer provided us with taxi chits to get us safely there and back, so the only civilian terrorized on the way home was the driver himself.
If my memory does not fail me on this, my New York strip steak was done to perfection -- but wow, the baked potato to the side of it was not the only thing that was "loaded".

Many thanks to Alyce for hosting this wonderful "Saturday Snapshot" meme.
******

Splash du Jour: Friday

And then he only had eyes for the pie. Watch any man, he could be ninety years old and drooling spit, but at the sight of homemade pie every last one of his wits will spring to attention.
-- Elizabeth Hay, A Student of Weather --

Have a great Friday!
******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

I've discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, 'To hell with you'.
-- Saul Bellow --

Have a great Thursday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

You don't get to advertise all the good that your religion does without first scrupulously subtracting all the harm it does and considering seriously the question of whether some other religion, or no religion at all, does better.
-- Daniel C. Dennett --

Have a great Wednesday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

And so we stood together like that, at the top of that field for what seemed like ages, not saying anything, just holding each other, while the wind kept blowing and blowing at us, tugging our clothes, and for a moment, it seemed like we were holding onto each other because that was the only way to stop us from being swept away into the night.
-- Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go --


Have a great Tuesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Monday

I head down the steps to see if my mail-order copy of Catcher in the Rye is in the box. I always order the banned books from a black market dealer in California, figuring if the State of Mississippi banned them, they must be good.
-- Kathryn Stockett, The Help --

Have a great Monday!
*******

Splash du Jour: Friday

A personal library is an X-ray of the owner’s soul. It offers keys to a particular temperament, an intellectual disposition, a way of being in the world. Even how the books are arranged on the shelves deserves notice, even reflection. There is probably no such thing as complete chaos in such arrangements.
-- Jay Parini --

Have a great Friday!
******

Splash du Jour: Thursday

Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time—past and future—the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.
-- Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now --
Have a great Thursday!
******

Splash du Jour: Wednesday

Have a great Wednesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Tuesday

Have a great Tuesday!
******

Splash du Jour: Monday

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.
-- Niels Bohr --

Have a great Friday!
******