Kaethe

Everybody falls in love with Homer, the badass tiny little blind cat. Me, too.

Copy borrowed from MIL Monday night we celebrated my beloved FIL's birthday with cake and cards with cats on them and gifts. (My husband's cakes are super delicious, and oh, so chocolaty.) I was returning her copy of Rosemary to her, and my beloved MIL mentioned this book again, saying I should read it, but she couldn't loan it to me, so I should download a copy. Second time she's mentioned it this week. She's loaned me many a fabulous book over the years of our happy association, and started me on many a now-beloved writer (Sarah Rayne and Minette Walters come immediately to mind, both in the same vein as our mutually-admired Barbara Vine novels) so anything she suggests must be considered.

Last night, not feeling any of my current non-fiction books (Shirley Jackson's not-yet-husband isn't content to just copulate with every woman he meets, but he also feels the need to report on it to her, which Shirley hates, and which any good advice columnist, say Mallory Ortberg's Dear Prudence, would agree is just plain mean), so instead I decided to download myriad samples, including Homer's Odyssey and Homer's Nine Lives. This morning I commuted reading samples (KHAN! is a great name for a Maine Coon, but it's apparently a kid's book, which I wasn't in the mood for, Homer's Nine Lives and Homer's Odyssey were adorable at the get-go, The City on The Edge of Forever starts with Ellison going off on everyone else, as he does, and complaining about the money everyone else is making, as if a professional writer can't write a fanfic for fun and enjoy getting paid for it [Ellison only sees in black and white, and seems to think that the devil is real and buying up souls for cheap]. I admire Ellison's fiction and criticism, but find his constant pissed-offedness tiresome. (Dude, it is not all about you. Don't assume malevolence until you have first ruled out incompetence.)

So, I arrive at work and want to place requests for the Homer books and the Ellison book, of which I will certainly read every word he includes, but will mostly laugh at how personally he takes everything. And that's when I discover that I have read Homer's Odyssey and quite liked it. I'm thinking it's time for a reread though, if I didn't recognize the passage I read and didn't say much about it in an my earlier mention.

November 17, 2016