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February 3, 1997
A week or so ago, Tom gave me a copy - a first edition! - of Halldor Laxness' Independent People, which has been out of print in English for years. I had despaired of ever reading it as the libraries around here didn't seem to have it (they probably threw it out because it didn't circulate - what is it with libraries these days?). Anyway, I was truly touched by the gift. I could barely speak. I was thrilled. I called Nancy almost the minute I got home to tell her about it.
Fast forward about a week. Big news on NPR! Independent People is back in print! Some commentator or other is talking to Jane Smiley about it. They are all excited. I am disbelieving. Only a week after Tom gives me a rare copy, it's back on bookstore shelves. Wordsworth has it in their window! Jane Smiley must have something to do with its being reissued. She seems to be the champion of Icelandic literature in the US these days. (Anybody else out there read The Greenlanders?) Maybe her popularity gave her the clout to bring Laxness to a whole new audience. Wow.
When I started telling people about last week's plane crash, they're like, wow, like how weird...
I guess people don't have their ex-lovers fall out of the sky on a regular basis.
Somebody else said, gee you sure are experiencing a lot of that new age synchronicity lately...
See why I can't write a novel? My life is stranger than fiction. Stranger than fantasy. Stranger than magic realism...
I got up at 8:00 this morning figuring that would give me plenty of time to get to the body shop to meet the rental car guy at 8:30. There was something wrong with this reasoning, but heck... Anyway, I had to unload the entire Rhode Island Reference Library, bags of various colors of broken glass from Beach Road Extension, hiking boots, ice scrapers, cold weather gear, rain gear, beach chairs, unread mail, missing pages from the great American novel, umbrellas, you name it. That took a few minutes. All that stuff is now on my kitchen floor.
Then I got behind a school bus on a one lane road. Took me twice as long to get to North Reading as it should've. Meanwhile the body shop had called my house and left a message. Anyway, finally got the rental car and left the Auntmobile. Don't know when it'll be ready.
Drove home and took a nap.
Went to Starbucks, had coffee, went home, took another nap.
Gathered my tools and drove to Nancy's to fix the bed and the futon in the living room and whatever else, and meet her after her eye checkup.
Eye checkup OK.
Furniture fixed.
Dinner at Applause, a little bistro with singing wait staff. Monday is rehearsal night. It was hilarious. The food wasn't bad either. Watched Murphy Brown and Cybill.
Drove home on icy roads.
Tireder than when I was working...