It occurred to me today I might read only Sebald and Shirley Hazzard, alternately, for the rest of the year and read deeply rather than widely. This novel is so good I have just sat down and read thirty pages aloud in the afternoon sun, the leaves scratching shadows on the page and the riverwater […]
In the Metro yesterday from the airport a man climbed onboard wearing immaculately pressed charcoal-coloured windbreaker and pleated pants, the uniform (according to his bright yellow logo) of a security firm: securidad. Later in the afternoon we saw two of his colleagues guarding a castle. He sat down and pulled out a beautiful copy of […]
The place I’ve sublet has a shelf of Joanna Trollope novels and I’ve just reread two of them. It’s so interesting learning all the signs she uses to indicate class. In the gentry, rudeness indicates an unwillingness to pander to form, it is authenticity. In factory workers, rudeness betrays a lack of breeding. Horsey women […]
chapter xi: the window does not trap what it views At the wilderness fundraiser we are third from the top, through no merit of our own. We are a last-minute substitution, they’ve bought tickets expecting to see a rockabilly quintet from Melbourne. It’s two months since we last played. From backstage we can hear the […]