Reading resolutions, already shot to hell.

I should have known better than to resolve to turn off the TV and read on the day when Gossip Girl episodes returned. We can't help it. We are powerless to turn off Gossip Girl. Watching it is essential to our mental health; it makes both Mr. CR and I feel young and problem-free when we watch these Manhattan teens drinking, smoking, and dealing with much more complex problems than we'll ever have.

I also did not read any poetry yesterday. But I got close: a new book came in for me at the library about which I was so excited that I simply held it in my hands and felt pure delight for a moment. And then I came home and read it so engrossingly that I forgot where I was. The book? The Norman Maclean Reader: Essays, Letters, and Other Writings by the Author of A River Runs Through It.

Although I could never, ever choose a "favorite" book, A River Runs Through It comes close (I have to read it, and J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey, at least once a year to maintain my version of equilibrium). I think it is beautiful in both its story and its writing. Perhaps it speaks to me because it is a fictionalized story of Maclean's youth and young adulthood in Montana, and particularly his drive to understand his family and his younger brother. As part of a large family I certainly understand trying to understand one's parents and siblings. What I find particularly telling is that Maclean wrote his masterpiece when he was in his seventies (in the 1970s), and his brother had been killed in the late 1930s. Can you imagine working over the death of your brother to try and understand it for forty years? Without getting too personal, all I can say is, I can. Although I loved this book long before I could understand that. Perhaps that is why I love it so: I loved it before I needed it, and after I needed it, I only loved it more. That is rare for me, as I am often need help but resent needing it (hence my hatred for doctors).

Well, I've wandered a bit. More about this book, which is interesting in its own right, tomorrow. Today, just a small example of Maclean's poetry, from his novel, which is excerpted in this collection:

"Yet even in the loneliness of the canyon I knew there were others like me who had brothers they did not understand but wanted to help. We are probably those referred to as 'our brothers' keepers,' possessed of one of the oldest and possibly one of the most futile and certainly one of the most haunting of instincts. It will not let us go."

Comments

[Susan]

I'm going to get my hands on the Norman MacLean Reader. Thanks for the post.

I never thought of reading resolutions. Now I have something to ponder.

[The Laundress]

I haven't read Maclean, but always think of your accolades when his name comes up. Will pull a title tomorrow and give him a whirl.

A wonderful thing about being a reader is how a writer from a different place and time sometimes seems to be writing exactly about your own life and can put into words those things one can't articulate personally. I am finding all kinds of personal relevance in Moby Dick just lately. Hey, Melville wrote poetry too, though I haven't done more than sample that...

Discovered via Buzzfeed, in case you missed it -- YouTube of "Dear Gossip Girl" rap:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLRaJOnJHhU

[Steve]

Thanks for a lovely post on a gray morning (at least in Virginia). I love that book - the last several pages, from the line that reads something like "one morning, the police called to tell me my brother had been beaten to death and his body dumped in an alley", are as good as any you will find. MacLean has to have felt it a fitting epitaph for his brother.

[Citizen Reader]

Susan,
I do hope you enjoy it. After you're done pondering you should come back and share your reading resolutions!

Laundress,
I know. I always oversell Maclean, and then people feel badly when they tell me they didn't love him as I did. Which is OKAY--I never mind hearing that someone didn't love a writer that I did; makes for more food for conversation. So if you don't like him don't be afraid to tell me, okay? Although I will make you tell me why you don't like him, if you don't....and do start with "A River Runs through It." "Young Men and Fire" is good too but not as perfectly formed as River.

Steve,
You're welcome. I'm glad you liked it. It's been nothing but gray mornings here in the midwest so maybe we're on the same light wavelength.
The sentence you mention was a tragic one but I do think that Maclean did his story justice, which is what he wanted to do. I think I love his book because it is an example of how you can love completely without complete understanding--which is a hard lesson, and one I keep having to re-learn.

[Care]

Just a quick note to let you know how extremely influential you have been to me as a reader. I am now, finally, about to start A River Runs Throught It. i am choking up reading Annie Proulx's intro (and I NEVER read intros until I am done with a book but some reason, I trusted she wouldn't ruin it.) and I am so emotional and eager to experience this writing! So. Thank yu CR. :)

[Citizen Reader]

Care,
Thanks for the kind words. You inspire me to keep on reading! (and gosh, posting. I've got to get back to posting one of these days.)

I hope you like ARRTI. But if you don't (it happens! a lot, I assure you), please do pop in and let me know why you didn't like it. That's always more interesting to me than when people won't tell me they didn't like a book I liked. I just enjoy the discussion more than anything.