Gifts

I just finished The Reader, which was absolutely brilliant. It's this carefully calibrated novel that is written with deliberation and introspection, and in a voice that's both cerebral and taut with emotion (I had to get off the subway 3 times cos I missed my stop while reading, what a stupid idiot right?) Schlink says that by reading you're implicated in history, and reading is the birth of ethical responsibility. There was a huge uproar earlier this year in Cornell when the Kate Winslet movie came out (yes, watch her Oscar speech, it is Hilarious, and orgasmic), because people said that ethical responsibility and atonement SHOULDN'T have to come with reading. But I think people who believe that are missing the point of the novel, which is a work of fiction. If you read too literally, you will miss the point.

For fun, someone did a tarot card reading for me last sunday. Of course you take these things with a pinch of salt. (Tarot cards are such beautiful art works, though, and I'd love to look seriously at tarot cards in the Renaissance as works of literature.) She asked me what was my most important question for the moment. My burning question, was, will I be home? Her answer was, "Of course, you will be home frequently, and each time you will be a different person, but you will bring home a gift each time."

Later: "A gift like me, maybe?" asks Justin, slyly. "NOT you," I say.

The problem with men, is that they are too literal.