“The joy of being alive and young suddenly took hold of her — and she spun around and kissed him, quite recklessly.” Before reading any book, I used to go to the last page and read its final line. At best, that would tell me if the whole book was […]
The guitar player strums or picks. The turtle does not scuttle or bumble. The sink drips, while the sirens . . . the sirens . . . holler? Hoot? Sound off?! What describes the sound a siren makes? It’s important to have the right vocabulary, especially when communicating important things […]
This can’t be love, because I feel so well,No sobs, no sorrows, no sighs.This can’t be love; I get no dizzy spells,My head is not in the skies. –Nat King Cole I often wondered why being in love made you want to stand on top of a mountain, shouting […]
Men gripped wrists two at a time. Then hugged. Together, we were. After ye ole UK my brother and I hopped a flight a few time zones eastward, with the friend we had always planned to meet at Heathrow, around the midnight hour. “I got us lounge entry,” […]
2018. Julia sat at a table alone with a birthday cake. Stuck to the creamy icing were six wax candles and a red letter A. She had spent the morning mixing chocolate and eggs for her son, to see him enjoy the three or four slices he was capable of […]
I was walking down one of those M.C. Escher stairs, in a museum, when I reached the end. From where I stood I could hear a young boy below, sobbing. The sound wasn’t echoing, as it should have been in such a large space. Fortunately, some of the railing was […]
No. No-o. Nope . . . No-o-o-o. No! No-u-u-u. NO! We shouldn’t complain. But here is a list of things that make me snarky, anyway. Some I am guilty of committing myself, while others are pure abstractions. At any rate, it’s what I’ve come up with and would like […]
I. Leroy was an exceptional man. Except, for one reason or another, no one wanted to date him. It led to much confusion, then suffering. Why? In answering this question, he began to consider his mother. The cause of his loneliness might be in her. Only, she was […]
Sound that breaks is noise, sound that moves is music. And from where he stood, Ilya Nikolayevich could almost hear the hum of a ship’s haul in the distance. It cut right across the line where ocean meets the sky, the horizon. He wished for the silence necessary to […]
The following is about the last two weeks, at times a Herculean effort on Ela’s part, while at times an Ovidian exile for me. Now that it’s over, I think Ela’s mother put it best, when she said, “You two will always remember getting married.” In her own witty way, […]
Dear Charlie Kaufman, After an hour of thinking about what to write, I’m ready. Why I am writing this letter is because you wrote two of my favorite movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Adaptation. You’re up there with Tarkovsky, Linklater, and Noe for me, […]
I feel like someone has to slap me across the back of my head to get me to write about this. My eyes shoot for the horizon, yet I look down at my feet. I can only see the here and now, can’t imagine some other later, just yet. […]
Feel free to fail. You are climbing over a stumbling block. That’s one. What are other, recent life lessons? Some silly things. I feel like I am holding a hot ginger tea and wearing pajamas as I explain things or muse, like some youtubers I saw recently. But on […]
Some months ago, my graduate department asked me a similar question in an interview. Now I’m thinking why not expand a little, let my hands hopscotch over the keyboard a little, improve a little. I think my answer remains the same: Vronsky and Levin. But, adding some meat to the […]
Let’s assume I’m this world-renowned author, with aspiring writers from around the world flocking to me for advice. I have this wild, white beard from years of paying attention to other people, a colorful yet tasteful garb over my head to prevent ideas from spilling out, and a voice as […]
Outside in Bucharest the clouds pour gentle, warm buckets of rain. Button-up shirts look three shades darker around the shoulders and back. Hair, too. The smell of flaky, crispy pastries finds its way through the wetness of morning. It is still early, but not for long. One reads. A […]
New Eyes They say that the natives on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean never saw Columbus’s boats coming, because they had never learned to recognize the four-mast ships, let alone imagine one previously. Now, look here: I am in a new country, surrounded by a new culture, […]
The list, the log It helps to return on occasion to the list of books you’ve read; granted, if you keep such a list. Remember how in elementary school teachers asked us to keep a “log” of titles and page numbers, maybe a summary? Students earned stars. Parents were […]
The next book is called They Lived They Were at Brighton Beach. And this post is a respite from feeling like I have to work at it. Thank you post! What else compares to the chasm between inching forward in life and looking back to see how far one has […]
A shout out to Michael, my friend who tugged at my writer’s collar the other day, asking, When are you going to start blogging again? So here I am. Not necessarily at his behest, but reminder. It’s nice to feel this digital cauldron burns again for hungry readers. […]