Still at home, reading one book a day for as long as this quarantine lasts.

DAY 51: DAYDREAM AND DRUNKENNESS OF A YOUNG LADY

I was surprised when Clarice Lispector’s Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady arrived. I didn’t expect it to be so tiny but was instantly charmed by its miniature sweetness; more pocket-sized books, please! How fitting for a quick commute or a half-hour stay at a gorgeous cafe.

As for the actual story: it’s exactly what you’d expect from Lispector. It’s dreamy but sharp, as if you stepped into a world akin to The Great Gatsby or Breakfast at Tiffany’s (but much better, given the author. Fighting words, I know.).

DAY 51 (CONT’D): WOMAN TO WOMAN

I know I should’ve read this seminal work years ago when I first saw its title referenced in an assigned reading back in college. (Predictably, it was for a Sex, Race, and Class elective that I’m eternally grateful for; that class changed my outlook). Woman to Woman is as monumental as its reputation even more so when you consider the time of publication—and formidable in its deep-dive of women living, creating, and navigating in a society that tries to undermine an entire sex’s very being.

Even by today’s standards, some of Marguerite Duras and Xavière Gauthier’s conversations are forward-thinking:

“M.D.: Well then, we shouldn’t live with them.

X.G.: With men?

M.D.: Right.

X.G.: That’s a problem too.

M.D.: We should have lovers, husbands maybe, but we shouldn’t live together… that is, lay ourselves open to subservience. Which comes immediately.

X.G.: Yes. And you think that we can have lovers or husbands without entering into an affective relationship?

M.D.: Oh, there will be an affective relation. There’ll be… but this way there won’t be the taking over of the husband’s upkeep and of the house on the part of the woman. Because she’d have her own place, and the husband would have his too. It’s the place in common that has to be broken up, maybe. The household, that is.”

DAY 52: LOVE LETTERS OF GREAT MEN

Of course I own this. It’s cheeky, it’s inspired by the collection featured in the Sex and the City movie, and if you (like me) aren’t easily wooed by traditional displays of romance (Witness to My Life is more my speed), Love Letters of Great Men is entertaining to poke fun at—especially when you know how the actual romance ends. The drama! The declarations of love and lust! Perhaps I’m too jaded for this type of courtship.

“Oh, go on loving me—never doubt the faitfhfullest heart

Of your beloved

I.

Ever thine.

Ever mine.

Ever ours.”

But still: there’s something special about professing your love on paper. Text messages just aren’t the same.

DAY 53: REFLECTIONS

Collections like these are what I love reading most. They’re edited, of course—refined and reworked in the editing process—but there’s a stream of consciousness that makes Walter Benjamin’s Reflections seem exactly as its title suggests: like reflections of his innermost workings. It ebbs and flows between language theory, writing, and recollections of his life: reading almost like a diary (but with sophistication that escapes mere mortals).

Imagine being born with a mind like his! With a literary deftness that is nothing short of illuminating? And yet, despite the talent, there’s clear dedication to perfecting his craft:

“[…] 8. Fill the lacunae of inspiration by tidily copying out what is already written. Intuition will awaken in the process.”

Another favorite passage:

” The interior is the retreat of art. The collector is a true inmate of the interior. He makes the transfiguration of things his business… The collector dreams that he is not only ina distant or past world but also, at the same time, in a better one, in which, although men are as unprovided with what they need in the everyday world, things are free of the drugery of being useful.

The interior is not only the universe but also the etui of the private person. To live means to leave traces. In the interior these are emphasized.”

And finally, a passage that bears relevance to today, as the digital frontier gives voice and visibility to all (for better or for worse):

“For the reader is at all times ready to become a writer, that is, a describer, but also a prescriber. As an expert—even if not on a subject but only on the post he occupies—he gains access to authorship.”

DAY 54: “OBJECT LESSONS:” THE ART OF THE SHORT STORY (PRESENTED BY THE PARIS REVIEW)

I devoured this greedily. Every anthology published by The Paris Review is replete with “learnings” (as kids say these days) and laced with nuggets of inspiration. For the aspiring writer, it’s invaluable: The Art of the Short Story offers analyses on some of the magazine’s best works by the literary world’s most prolific minds. And for the avid reader, you’re given a glimpse of the inner workings behind the stories—a gift, really. It’ll have a profound effect on how you read everything else going forward.

DAY 55: THE BEAUTIFUL FALL

The Beautiful Fall is just divine. It’s an exquisite exposè that reads more like a fantasy novel—a fashion girl’s Harry Potter, only every event is grounded in reality—and though this was my second reading, I hung onto every word as if it was my first time. I could re-read this and hang onto new findings every time; every chapter oozes decadence and delights with extravagance. I swear; I was born in the wrong era.

I hope, pray, manifest—whatever it takes to make sure—that Alicia Drake writes a follow-up of the next two decades.

DAY 56: AN EXTRAORDINARY THEORY OF OBJECTS

After reading The Beautiful Fall, I was nostalgic for Paris and that period of my life where I was a little Francophilia. When An Extraordinary Theory of Objects was published, I remember thinking it was the most beautiful book in the world. (It was. Is!) The author, Stephanie Lacava, had been one of my favorite contemporary writers and I pored over her memoir as an outsider. How could it be that she—someone more eloquent, sophisticated, worldly—be relatable? Or, more likely: make me feel so seen? I’d always thought I was alone in my eccentricities and my ties to things but here, I no longer felt so odd.

(Of course, I pre-ordered her upcoming novel. I’ve been waiting for years.)

DAY 57: CITY OF GIRLS

On paper, this book should’ve been an easy favorite. I admire Elizabeth Gilbert to the highest degree and I adore burlesque with every fiber of my being—and yet, as much I wanted to love City of Girls, I didn’t. Was it the narrator’s cadence I couldn’t quite get in sync with, or was it because Gilbert’s signature rhythm overshadowed the narrator’s voice? I hardly bear the credentials to shed opinion (much less critique) on anyone’s work, but I finished this novel feeling bereft. Wanting.

It was almost as if everything was set up too perfectly. But who am I to impose my needs on someone’s writing?

DAY 58: GOLDEN CHILD

Anything Sarah Jessica Parker recommends has become a favorite. And after I read A Place for Us, her imprint’s debut novel, I knew I would love Golden Child, too. It’s haunting—harrowing, even—in bringing light to the complexities of Trinidad’s multicultural society. As unsettling as it is beautiful.

DAY 59: ALL YOU CAN EVER KNOW

I couldn’t put down Nicole Chung’s memoir, not even for a moment. All You Can Ever Know was heart-wrenching yet filled with love and light, too. A must-read for anyone who has wrestled with and is reconciling with identity, or harbors any desire to become a parent. Or simply appreciates good writing.

DAY 60: SOUTH AND WEST

I could subsist on Didion’s words and hers alone. There are so many things I loved about this book, from its size (laid out like her older books, but tinier), the premise (gathered from her notes!), the concrete lyricism, the lists of things observed, noted, to be shelved and repurposed for a future piece. Or not.

.   .   .

xx