The first time I read this little powerhouse engine
of a book I clearly had no idea what I was doing here —
I simply read the book with pleasure, but there is
no pleasure here (though there is), it's a workout,
and so for the second reading I spent two weeks
reading its railroad line 132 pages.
It may as well be 132 miles.
Never a slog. You won't believe
how well this writer will airlift you.
The third book in a straight line reading
I did over a month starting with Murnane, then Inger Christensen
and finishing with Hemingway, where I went from
A Moveable Feast straight back into the
short stories from Up In Michigan (which Stein disliked)
and then not messing around to The Big Two-Hearted River
(Kent and I believe the greatest fishing story ever written).
An onion sandwich, dipped in river water.
[ BA ]
Farrar, Straus, Giroux
2017
