the effect of the setting sun on beautiful trees in October
pleasure - simple and abundant
Hi Hi!
The line at the top is from a poem by Maurice Chaplain.
La vieillesse embellit tout : elle a l’effet du soleil couchant dans les beaux arbres d’octobre.
Old age beautifies everything: it has the effect of the setting sun on beautiful trees in October.
I’ve been thinking a lot about beauty, about pleasure. How can one not when there so much to notice in the world. As per the poem, I certainly hope old age beautifies everything. Yet that’s up to us, right? I work hard to unclasp my critical vision, to go a little soft on the hard edges of a life.
Ahem, my body is already well on its way to going a little soft — and my heart as well.
It’s a practice to pause for the daily beauty…the setting sun on trees, the narrow passages of a French village, pâtisseries on a counter, laundry on a line, bistro chairs piled up beneath a tree.
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Of course this beauty talk brought to mind other pleasures:
And also this beautiful story which I studied in grad school, “Goodbye My Brother,” by John Cheever. The story is about a family gathering and the adult sibling who, with his bad humor, ruins everything for everyone. He absolutely has blinders on, refusing to find any joy or uplift or beauty in himself, his family, or in the world. Listless and annoying, when offered a martini he says,
“I don’t care. Whiskey, gin—I don’t care what I drink. Give me a little rum.”
Here is the final paragraph:
Oh, what can you do with a man like that? What can you do? How can you dissuade his eye in a crowd from seeking out the cheek with acne, the infirm hand; how can you teach him to respond to the inestimable greatness of the human race, the harsh surface beauty of life; how can you put his finger for him on the obdurate truths before which fear and horror are powerless? The sea that morning was iridescent and dark. My wife and my sister were swimming—Diana and Helen—and I saw their uncovered heads, black and gold in the dark water. I saw them come out and I saw that they were naked, unshy, beautiful, and full of grace, and I watched the naked women walk out of the sea.
Yes, the writing here is elegiac, and I imagine Cheever being eviscerated in a workshop! Can’t you just hear the criticism?!?
“Unshy, beautiful and full of grace? Come on Cheever! Choose one!”
But, it is at the end of a story when we have the opportunity to go big, to use lyric language, to open up the story in a vast panorama. The reader has stayed with you this long, why not flex?
What is a simple pleasure that lights you up?
read:
Traipsing around villages and parks, I’ve been listening to Lily King’s new novel, HEART THE LOVER. I am a big fan of her writing, particularly her novel EUPHORIA. What I love most is the simplicity of her language. (You’re prob wondering why I love the paragraph from Cheever above if I claim to love simple prose… the heart wants what the heart wants!) Also, Lily King captures so well what it feels like to fall in love.
Also, I very much love the rhyming action of the cover art for HEART THE LOVER and THE GREAT GATSBY, as both novels have characters called Daisy. Daisy Buchanan in Gatsby of course, and in HEART THE LOVER Daisy is a nickname for the stream of dates the two male characters, Yash and Sam, pursue and then ignore.
There are certain tropes I will always read: mother/daughter is one, and friends-to-lovers is another. This novel is a friends-to-lovers story. I’m also keen on themes of ambition vs. love, especially when women must choose. I will say, I got very peeved at how much the main character is willing to put up with from the two men in the first act of the novel. She nearly erases herself and spends so much time weeping… it exhausted me at times. I don’t want to say more as…spoilers. Just know, in case you forgot, life is cruel.
Read this novel if you love Lily King. Read if you need another reason to cry (which I cannot imagine as things are pretty hard in the world just now). Read if you need the simple pleasures of good sentences, a few moments in Paris, and the sweet delirium of first love.
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I’ve finished THE HOUSE OF MIRTH, by Edith Wharton, and I am so glad I finally read it. I can’t wait to discuss in our read.write.eat. book group so I can unpack why I think Lily Bart is like the Democratic Party! Details on our meeting below.
AND, please remember Heather Aimee O’Neill will be in the house for our November book group! We will be reading her wonderful novel, THE IRISH GOODBYE, and Heather, a Jenna’s book group pick(!), will be joining us! Now is the time to hop
We have zoom r.w.e. book group! Our October selection is HOUSE OF MIRTH, by Edith Wharton. We meet on 19 October @ 9:00a PDT.
In November, we discuss Heather Aimee O’Neill’s novel, THE IRISH GOODBYE! And lucky us, Heather will be joining!! We meet on 16 November @ 9:00a PDT
The book group is a perk for paid subscribers and let me tell you we are a lively bunch!
Go ahead, upgrade to paid and claim your spot. I hope to get to know you better!
I've made a read.write.eat. Bookshop where you will find many of the books I've recommended. Buying books from my shop is another way you can support my newsletter.
write:
French language school is kicking my ass. I’m in class fifteen hours a week, plus I have homework every night, and my brain is scrambled.
But! I still have some writing going on. Last week I posted a micro-memoir piece about my breasts. TMI? Maybe so…. you can read it here if you wish.
What I enjoyed most about writing the piece was doing the writing. Next, I loved the surprise I found when I brought the ending back to the beginning. I never intended for the circularity… it was a discovery and that was a pleasure.
I offer you these prompts and ideas for jumping in to your own micro pieces. Honestly, they are liberating.
Consider circling one theme, or an object, or a person who has significant in your life, and writing 10 short pieces as I did in my micro memoir.
THEME: Your firsts (dog/cigarette/dinner party/flight/lie…) or Your lasts (drink/time you were in your childhood bedroom/ate meat…)
PERSON: Your sibling at different times in your life
OBJECT: Couches you’ve owned, cars—the one you learned to drive in and the one you smashed up and the one you dreamed of owning, dining room tables where you laughed, fought, served your first Thanksgiving meal…
Write a 250-word sentence (the idea is to just write quickly… don’t let the pause of a period stop you!) Your sentence can be about anything you’d like, but perhaps consider writing about something which used to annoy you, leaf blowers? The Carpenters? Going to bed early? But now, you don’t mind.
Write dating profiles for yourself, but from different eras of your life. What would your 20 year old profile look like? 30? 40? 50? Funny and fun to see how what was important at 20 has changed.
Should you do any of these, please feel free to post a few sentences in the comments.
eat:
Airbnb kitchens are a grab bag of disappointments and surprises. Dull knives, no salad bowl, gouged teflon pans that seem to be giving you cancer just by looking at them. Black plastic cooking utensils… again with the cancer! And then the surprise of absolutely fabulous wine glasses, delightful and thoughtful treats left for you by your host. An amazing stove and oven. It’s a crap shoot to be sure.
Here’s what we made for dinner last night at our new spot in Aix en Provence.
Joel found white fish (sea bass?) at the poissonnerie. We slicked the bottom of the baking pan with olive oil and placed the fish on top of sliced onions. We could have used a lot more onions but alas, it was all we had and le marché had long since closed.
Next, à la this Alison Roman recipe, I covered the fish in orange slices, sprinkled on salt and a few grinds of pepper from our new mill as the Airbnb didn’t have one…can you believe this red! It’s the lipstick color I’ve always wanted.
We then baked at about 400 degrees (I say about because the oven temp is measured in celsius) for roughly 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, no veggie steamer, so I boiled some green beans until al dente, then mixed with fabulous Pistachio Pesto (here’s a recipe in case you want to make some) which I bought at the adorable Italian Épicerie in our neighborhood.
Of course, I failed again to get a final photo. But trust me, it was colorful and delicious. The fish, the oranges, the beans!
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I encourage you to make a colorful yet simple meal avec plaisir! …and then let me know about it:
after-party🎉:
If you’re already a paid subscriber, Giant THANKS! And please, skip ahead.
Below the paywall you’ll find:
A PDF of the story mentioned above
The yorkie mascot from the town Laurmarin!
And then of course, Stanley!
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