Darlings, Quelle Catastrophe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Girls, I am telling you, this is my life--we just go from one trauma to another. I am as emotionally exhausted as Olivia De Havilland as Melanie in "Gone With The Wind" when she appeared atop the stairs at Tara, with the sword, to assist Scarlett with the dispatch of the Yankee soldier.

First, I have all this free floating anxiety, which suggests I think another visit needed to Riviera Cafe for their TWO--that is TWO, darlings--Bloody Marys!!!!!!
But Sunday was dire--first I had to carry--at Monsieur Davide's behest!--a back breaking load of laundry to the cleaners. I mean, talk about what I did for love!!!!!!! It was a wonder I could straighten up!!!!!! I almost collapsed against a lampost, girls, ane while I know a thing or two about lamposts,loves, collapsing was never what I used them for!!!!!!!!!

On we went to the laundromat, where we fed coins into the machine, shoving in clothes and detergent. Sweeties, even I can do this; much as I WANT to be Princess Lee Racizwill, I am so NOT. Then we settled donw to await the laundry--Mosieur Davide with his work, I with my current literary tome--and this is where Quelle Catastrophe set in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The day or so before, I had begun "Matterhorn" by Karl Marlantes. Lambchops, it was hailed as a quasi literary event. It graced the cover of The New York Times Book Review, and the praise, while not quite Franzen-ish, were cleary going in that direction, certain to land it at least on the Notable Books list!!!!!!!!! It was set in Vietnam, a territory I had covered, having read Michael Herr's classic "Dispatches" (made into an underrated Elizabeth Swados musical seen at the Public), and Dennis Johnson's "Tree Of Smoke," which I can tell you lots of people I knew were not able to finish, and which The Times, I think, went overboard in praising it. But that was nothing compared to Matterhorn." It starts out promisingly, and I gamely kept at it, but by Sunday afternoon, somewhere around the one sixties, I knew I had had it. Reading it ceased to be a pleasure and more of a chore, a sure thing that the book is NOT doing it for me.

Girls, I was emotionally devastated, because even though I have gotten better at it, it still hurts me to put a book aside. I view it as a personal failing. And after having bought it at the Strand!!!!!!!!!!!! When I told Monsieur Davide, the poor man was in a state of shock!!!!!!!!!! But being the wonderful fellow he is, he was ready to help. So we decided that after laundry time we would make a bookstore run, so I would not suffer some kind of intellectual dehydration. Now, it is true I had a backup book in my bag, but, darlings, with MY system, you KNOW I cannot start my backup without finishing the current. And since I could NOT finish this current current, then a NEW current had to be found and read.

So soon as we put away the laundry we sped down to bookbook on Bleecker Street, where I perused so many titles I did NOT know what to do. At last I settled on two--the E.M. Forrester classic "A Passage To India,' which I have not read in years, girls, and have been meaning to, and then Zoe Heller's recent novel "The Believers," which is what I started, and, girls, what a differnce a book makes!!! Now I can block out that "Matterhorn" thing. Of course, an evening marathon of "SVU" helped; it was "Killer Clergy" day, though the term was used speciiously, and it was equal opportunity, what with questionable rabbis. So another catastrophe was averted girls, which makes me wonder if I should not have TWO backup books. But this thing happens maybe only once or twice a year. Since this is almost October, I can be pretty sure that is it for me. But "Matterhorn" will always stick out for me as a "memorable book"--and that is NOT a compliment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Compliments to you all, my darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!