Marie Gauthier

That’s the only way to get through. Unless you’re fortunate enough to have AC. Here, however, it was already 88º when I got up this morning.  Inside.

The heat has made me — and the boys — so sloth-like that I was able to read two novels over the long weekend. Can you imagine? I almost felt young again.

Anyway, the novels I read were The Last Time They Met, by Anita Shreve, and Sue Miller’s latest, The Lake Shore Limited. Both really well-written, compelling reads, but I’m so glad I read the Shreve one first. It begins as two poets, old lovers, meet after 24 years at a conference. The story then proceeds backwards, the middle part the second time they met, the third & final part the first time they met, as seniors in high school. I finished it about midnight Saturday, and its ending is a stunner, kept me sleepless for an hour more in outrage and awe.

After that, I really needed another great book to knock my mind from its little hamster wheel of obsession. The new Sue Miller was just the ticket. Flawed, fully-realized, sympathetic characters, dealing with 9/11 (gracefully, delicately, powerfully), grief, ambivalence, the fine balance between art & life, this is a novel that feels lived, alive. Great stuff.

So there you are. If this heat streak keeps up I might actually catch up on all the novels I’ve been wanting to read. Off to the library — and its delectable AC — as soon as it opens — sadly, a few hours away. Halleluiah for electricity and fans, ice and sweet tea.