Just to remind you of the conversation I posted on yesterday. As of 5 EDT I am talking with Russ Rymer about his new novel, Paris Twilight.
Russ is a fine writer — his stuff has been published in all the good places, or at least all those starting with the letter “N”: New Yorker, The New York Times, National Geographic. He’s written a couple of non-fiction books before this one both good, but with Paris Twilight I think he’s produced a work at the next level, art in prose.
Not to give away spoilers, but the story turns on what Matilde Anselm, professor of cardiac anesthesiology, discovers when she is called to Paris in 1990 just as the first Gulf War is getting under way. She’s there to serve as part of a heart transplant team for an operation that gets her ethical antennae twitching — where, in the end, is the needed heart going to come from. The story deepens from there, bringing the Spanish Civil War’s horrors, and those of the Nazi occupation of Paris into the present. As the intricate plot works its way through Matilde, one constant is the way in which the mysteries as well as the rigorous practice of anesthesiology frame her questions, her concerns, her changing understanding of her own life.
The book really is a wonderful novel, full of all the rewards of fiction — great plot action, emotional exploration, ideas all expressed in and through human beings so fully realized that it comes as a surprise when you remember that they don’t actually exist. But what makes this so sweet to me, from my peculiar perch, is the vein of science and hard thinking about what a life in science can tell you about life, full stop, that runs through the work, that makes it go.
I’ve got a lot to ask Russ — and having heard him give a reading last night, with his almost eerie account of how Matilde accosted him on the street and took the role of author right out of his hands, I’m looking forward to learning about practice of writing as well as about what Russ has written.
Tune in: on the web.
Image: Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1888
JGabriel
Off-Topic (Sorry, Tom!), but this is too good not to share immediately.
David Brooks:
Repress much, David?
P.S. I do not recommend reading the rest of that piece, unless you want the whites of your eyeballs to burst like the milky explosions of David Brooks’ dreams.
Mark
open thread topic, cnn fail edition:
the insufferable search for false equivalency, their Egypt coverage is disgusting. they have the square with hundreds of thousands of people, zoomed in on a part, and a ” pro morsy” crowd filling an intersection. they are listed as “anti morsy” and “pro morsy” and show about the same size of crowd due to the camera zoom they are using.
it’s downright pathetic. shameful.
Mark
also…. so everyone realizes, Egypt’s new Independence Day is now………… July 4th
srv
I seen both Starry Nights, and saw the Rhone again at d’Orsay in May.
Roger Moore
Incorrect title. That’s “Starry Night over the Rhone”. “The Starry Night” is a later, and much more famous, one that better demonstrates van Gogh’s fully developed style.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Roger Moore:
I loved the Dr. Who episode when the Dr. and Amy go back and visit Van Gough and during the episode Vincent takes the Dr. and Amy and they lay on the ground looking up into the night sky and as Vincent is describing what he sees to them the sky morphs into his painting. It was wonderful. The guy who played Vincent is now flogging Scotts grass products on my tee vee. *sigh*
Amir Khalid
@JGabriel:
I think of that weekly feature as “Gail Collins Humouring an Idiot”.
Botsplainer
@Mark:
Both sides!
Maybe they can have a panel of elite pundits debate what it all means. As the show winds down, they can all say in unison: “We’re the Aristocrats!”
Botsplainer
@Mark:
Both sides!
Maybe they can have a panel of elite pundits debate what it all means. As the show winds down, they can all say in unison: “We’re the Aristocrats!”
Botsplainer
@Mark:
Both sides!
Maybe they can have a panel of elite pundits debate what it all means. As the show winds down, they can all say in unison: “We’re the Aristocrats!”
pokeyblow
I’ve been to Paris a few times, and have never experienced it as the cornucopia of delights which I take the common perception to be.
A few years ago, I learned about the 19th-century etchings of Charles Meryon, which show a dark, gloomy Paris, a place which might indeed have hosted the horrors associated with revolution, retribution, and bloody chaos.
For those interested, I recommend you have a look. Easy to google, of course.
JGabriel
@pokeyblow: As easy as linking.
pokeyblow
@JGabriel: Thanks, but I didn’t know how, and I didn’t presume anyone would want to look. Just saying something I think is moderately interesting.
Yatsuno
@JGabriel: I got three sentences in. Then my brain rebelled at the stupidity.
Wiesman
Paris Twilight?
I just don’t have time for another vampire book, and French vampires just seem tedious.
Heyooo!
Here all week!
JGabriel
@Amir Khalid: It’s just precious, isn’t it?
@Yatsuno: I warned you — can’t say I didn’t.
Roger Moore
@JGabriel:
It wasn’t that bad. Just imagine it’s an absurdist farce making fun of bloviating pseudo-intellectuals, and it’s actually kind of funny. And I’ll bet it would be hilarious if you were stoned out of your mind.
Sherry Reson
Tom, I listen carefully and you get better and better at these hour-long conversations. I’m so pleased to be associated with you. In this case; this conversation with Russ is a particularly wonderful listen; something to download and take out on a long walk. The last part about science setting the metaphors for our lives? Bravo!
aangus
youtube.com/watch?v=hU0QZQRTNr0