And here we are again
I had this whole essay about the shitshow1 that is NYS’s 730 competency process (seriously, it’ll be a banger of a post) but then I finished Sara Gran’s latest and just have to tell you all about it (or at least a couple of quotes from it that resonated).
To back up: Sara Gran is one of my must-buy-on-sight writers. Her Claire Dewitt books are exactly what I want from a detective novel: weird, occasionally bleak but full of heart, and snappy. Even when when one of her books doesn’t quite hit me—I’m still not sure I figured out the point of The Book of The Most Precious Substance—I always deeply dig the act of reading her work.
Little Mysteries: Nine Miniature Puzzles to Confuse, Enthrall, and Delight does everything it says on the label. While Claire Dewitt does turn up, it’s not really her book. There are, in fact, miniature puzzles that confuse, enthrall, and delight. But these short stories also pick at what it means to be an aging
human during a time when the rules that have been ingrained in you no longer hold value.
“No one will blame you if you give up now. Go get an apartment somewhere, maybe a condo with a pool. Fuck Rapid Falls and its abnormally high crime rate. Fuck mysteries and fuck this world and most of all fuck other people. Some people say Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Those people don’t know what loss is, and you wonder if they’ve ever really ventured anything at all.
“You have a choice: Can you believe that the universe has some adventure left for you? That life—and other people—might still be worth risking another crack in your heart for?
“If you say NO, then hey, listen, I don’t blame you. People are awful, and so is this fucking world we’ve made. But going home is not without it’s own risks: you might wake up in the middle of the night and not know who you are anymore. YOu might realize with a painful and ugly feeling that you no longer remember what you were so angry about, or why you devoted your life to it. You might realize that instead of letting someone else break your heart, you’ve broken it yourself.”
I mean … ooof. Just ooof.
And if you have a copy already you are in for a treat. I highly recommend reading page 268 over and over again whenever this world feels like too, too much.
Anywho, I love Sara Gran’s work. You might as well.
Now, some links:
From the above photo: a bit of history you probably didn’t know about.2
Just because you personally just started to notice it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been happening all along.
All of these are true.
News you can use re: PA Coroners.
American politics right now really is this simple.
And while life in my county isn’t this bleak, if the systems of care we have keep getting cut back, it will be.
HIGHLY TECHNICAL TERM
I can’t help but think about how much of a slap in the face it was to return to the racism and sexism in the U.S. after having so much relative freedom in the U.K. and France. (Please note my use of the word “relative.”)
A review of Christmas candy and our current state of affairs.
But only in Jan, Feb, or March