basically: very good. but i need a longer short story hiatus.

i don’t really have anything to say about this—but when i skimmed through the book before returning it to the library, i realized that most of the stories in retrospect were really good. as i was reading them i kept feeling like i was waiting for something magical to happen or be said. i think if i reread these, i would probably enjoy them more in the moment.

i think i got books mixed up. i remember looking at a book in a store recently and thinking it sounded good. i also saw this book and remembered how i read Minot’s book of poems several months ago. somehow this became the book i wanted to read, but i can’t recall the other book at all. i glanced at the jacket again before starting it and thought is this really the book i wanted to read? after reading a few pages, i was pretty sure that it wasn’t.

basically this is like reading a slice of cosmo fictionalized: two ex-lovers meet up again and the whole internal tennis match between their heads takes place while they are having sex. while it’s pretty well-written in basic terms of how words are strung together, and their history unfolds steadily between their sudden recollections in an almost enjoyable way, it’s just a bizarre story. by the end i couldn’t figure out which character to feel more sorry for; not even the few descriptive parts drew me into the story.

the best thing about this book is it’s so short, i read it in a day.

Published as A Transatlantic Love Affair in the US

it was bound to happen, and it was likely to be during the summer, that i would find many distractions from reading. it didn’t help to be in the midst of a 600-page book that at times doesn’t have a steady plot to pull itself along. maybe now my reading pace seems less horrifyingly fast than before.

i’ve never read a collection of letters before, and this is a good collection to read because there is somewhat of a narrative—the evolution of Simone and Nelson’s relationship. she also just writes beautiful letters, and i especially love the way she writes about Paris. the situation between Simone and Nelson is heartbreaking, tragic even. it’s clear that they love each other, but neither could move to be with the other because of their work. there are sad misunderstandings between them and eventually they cease all contact. it’s a shame that Nelson’s letters can’t be published along with these (it’s half-explained in the preface that the “project did not prove possible”); there are enough notes to get a good sense of what is going on with him and his statements and reactions.

i also tried to read The Mandarins by Simone, but i was just not in the mood for the density of her prose. a small part of the story is based on Nelson and her first meeting in Chicago.

anyway, please send suggestions of other collections of letters that i should get around to reading someday.