Paris Memoir
Same boyfriend, different life.
We memoirists like to think our lives are uniquely ours, but often it turns out not to be true–at least not wholly true. I’ve been
July 4, 2013
Paris Memoir
Do Nice Girls Have Sex?
Or how did nice girls have sex in the 1950s―you know, so twentieth century. In her controversial NYRB piece about two new Sylvia Plath biographies,
June 27, 2013
Noted
Is self-plagiarism really plagiarism?
I’ve just moved to London for the summer and one of the first things I did was attend the June meeting of “Laydeez do Comics,”
June 20, 2013
Noted
What’s in a name?
A few days ago I received an email from a high school friend I haven’t seen for many years. She said that on a recent
June 13, 2013
Noted
If Emily Dickinson tweeted…
I’m Nobody! Who are you? Are you―Nobody―Too? (c. 1861) Despite Dickinson’s well-known gift for concision, these lines and the ones that follow in the poem,
June 8, 2013
Paris Memoir
Is Twenty-Seven Old?
At some point in the interesting new movie Frances Ha someone declares: “Twenty-seven is old.” In his enthusiastic review film critic A.O. Scott observes: “while
May 30, 2013
Noted
Transitions
“It’s not the moves, it’s between the moves.” This was one of those offhand remarks that has stuck in my mind for at least twenty
May 23, 2013
Noted
Am I still that person?
A few weeks ago, my friend and former jogging partner Ellen Sweet sent me this snapshot that she had just discovered while scanning old photographs
May 17, 2013
Noted
Brooding
One morning last week when I was walking around the reservoir in Central Park with a friend we came upon these two ducks. The sight
May 9, 2013
Noted
Reading the signs of spring in Manhattan
I’ve been trying to decide whether my negative feelings about being back in New York after a month at sea, well, by the sea, should
May 2, 2013
Welcome. Some musings on my current preoccupations with the worlds of illness and the worlds of books, the vicissitudes of living with cancer and the need now, in my eighties, to imagine what new writing might be.