by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 7, 2008 | life, time |
On NPR, on September 20th, I heard David Sedaris say that he was no different than anyone else except that he kept a notebook in his pocket. He noticed and he recorded. In the May 8, 2006 issue of the New Yorker, he wrote: “For the past ten years or so, I’ve...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 4, 2008 | life |
Life is weather. Life is meals. Lunches on a blue checked cloth on which salt has spilled. The smell of tobacco. Brie, yellow apples, wood-handled knives. James Salter, in one of my all-time favorite books, Light Years. I met James Salter in Portland in July of 2004,...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 2, 2008 | my writing |
marry tale #1: the doors between Once upon a time there was a man and a woman, who decided to become the husband and the wife. They wanted to be sensible. They wanted to continue to respect each other. Each wanted to preserve his and her privacy. They weren’t...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 30, 2008 | shapes |
The Oxford American Dictionary defines this beautiful sounding word as like prose; lacking poetic beauty. unromantic; dull; comonplace. The top three definitions of prose are the ordinary form of the written or spoken language a passage of prose a tedious speech or...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 28, 2008 | details, journeys, reviews |
The Country Life, published in 1997, is Rachel Cusk’s third novel. She is spacing them out like children–one every two years. As opposed to The Temporary, the writing is solid throughout, continuously propelling the reader forward. The first sentence...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 27, 2008 | continuous life |
I used to copy down favorite passages in a notebook. A small five by seven three-ring binder. I could move the pages around, organize them. I haven’t written in it in a while. I’m not sure why. Maybe too busy writing myself. Anyway, I was looking...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 26, 2008 | life, poetry |
One of my favorite poems is “Otherwise” by Jane Kenyon. It begins “I got out of bed on two strong legs. It might have been otherwise.” For the complete poem, please go to http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/050.html. “Otherwise” first...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 25, 2008 | reviews, shapes |
With her first novel, Saving Agnes, Rachel Cusk laid the foundation for her writing life. The Temporary is her second novel. It was published in 1995, two years after her first. And I see improvement. The author is using fewer words, and in places, she goes...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 24, 2008 | first novels, reviews |
In July, I read Arlington Park and discovered a writer new to me–Rachel Cusk. She was born in Canada in 1967, grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives in England. Arlington Park is her most recent novel. Although I thought it was slightly brusque in its movement...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 22, 2008 | reading, the day |
September 22, 2008–the autumnal equinox–fall at last. My favorite season. And it felt like fall this morning. Canada geese flying over. The first leaves changing color. It’s no surprise that in two of my all-time favorite books, the authors write...
