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August, 2014: Until We Meet Again
By
Published: Aug 21, 2014
Category:
Beyond Classification
We’re just back from a week on St. John. Islands in the off-season — that’s us. The planes are cheap, they practically pay you to occupy houses that are unaffordable in December, the beaches are empty. My wife has a 24/7 job and wants/needs to know every current events factoid; on these trips she rarely looks at her phone. I make notes and read, but mostly, I’m in the water with the small person. Really: six hours a day, using a boogie board as a table, we drift and chat. A year’s worth of chat, because once we return home she closes her door and is playing Mindcraft with her virtual friends. (“Regan, I’m going off to kill someone. Want to come along?”)
This seems counter-intuitive: Now that I’m back in New York, I’m taking a week off. The site usually rests for two weeks in August, but there’s too much happening in the world and in my head for me to dream that I’m Somerset Maugham and can write fiction without distraction for half a month.
Speaking of fiction, a favor. I’ve started a new book, but I have much to do for “Married Sex” before it’s published in 2015. One task: getting other writers to praise it, so I can slap blurbs on the book and reassure potential readers that it’s not “Fifty Shades of Jesse.” I’ve made a list of writers I admire and have been sending out requests, but I’m sure I’ve missed some obvious candidates. If you can think of writers — the more well known, the better — who might like a love story about a Manhattan husband and wife who have a sexual adventure that looks harmless but isn’t, please let me know.
Here are some suggestions that I’d like to be enjoying for the first time as summer winds down. But I completely understand if you choose to spend six hours a day in warm water, saying everything and nothing to someone you adore.
The next Butler will come your way on Tuesday, September 2. Take care…
BOOKS
The Day of the Jackal
“It is cold at six-forty in the morning on a March day in Paris, and seems even colder when a man is about to be executed by firing squad.” From a friend, a noted writer: “I’ve done little during the past few days other than read ‘Jackal.’ Another winner! It put me a little behind in my work, but hey, that’s August . . .”
The Perfect Summer: England, 1911
Edward VII had died the previous spring; mourning was over, George V was about to be crowned, there would be a full season of glorious parties….
The Queen’s Gambit
from recent Reader Mail: “It was 11 PM and I was exhausted, but started reading. By 2 AM, I disciplined myself to put it down, crashed, and was up at six to get another hour in before work deadlines. Throughout the day, I read it at stoplights, walking from one room to another and at every other available moment, so that by 2 PM I’d read it all. I didn’t know about this book and without you would have missed one of the most exquisite novels I’ve ever read. Thank you.”
Cakes and Ale
Maugham’s favorite of his books. Here he juggles half a dozen characters without breaking a sweat. The novel seems formless and weightless, a tale of sexual freedom and a boy’s admiration for a romantic rebel told by a friend over drinks. You cannot imagine how hard it is to do this.
Old Filth
Filth means “Failed in London Try Hong Kong,” which is what Edward Feathers did. He became a rich, successful lawyer there, and then a judge, and now, as the novel begins, he’s 80, and, with his wife Betty, retired to the English countryside. “Pretty easy life,” remarks a judge who knew him well. “Nothing ever seems to have happened to him.” He is so wrong….
Farmer’s Son
If I told you what this novel is about — a generational battle between the world’s worst father and his dyslexic son, played out on a few hundred acres in the Midwest — you’d probably thank me for the suggestion, smile and keep on walking. Don’t you dare move.
HeadButler.com: The 100 Essentials
A shameless plug for the longest book I’ll ever write: 80,000 words, 100 reviews of books, movies and music I consider essential. Some of these titles are recent releases; many aren’t. One reason: Almost everything ever published, recorded or filmed is available on the Internet. Another reason is more flippant, but no less true: If it’s new to you, it’s new.
Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel Garcia Marquez is, for many, in the pantheon, right at the top. The greatest stylist. The greatest innovator. But even more, the greatest storyteller — the creator of the most interesting characters, the most addictive plots, the best endings. And this is one of his greatest novels.
The Madonna of the Sleeping Cars
In 1927 Maurice Dekobra published a novel that sold a million copies in France. (It was eventually published in 24 languages.) In 1928, The New York Times described him as “the biggest seller of any living French writer — or dead one either.” Fifteen of his novels became films; “Madonna” was filmed twice. It’s pure pleasure.
VIDEO
Top of the Lake
Twelve-year-old Tui Mitcham, fully clothed, walks into a New Zealand lake. She’s pulled out, examined, found to be five months pregnant. Who’s the father? She won’t say. And then she disappears. A thriller with bite. And gorgeous scenery.
State of Play
When was the last time you watched six hours of anything and found yourself moving closer to the edge of your seat as it moved toward its conclusion?
MUSIC
Cesaria Evora
She was one of the queens of World Music. Not that she cared: “I have a completely normal life. I take care of my house, I visit with family and friends. At night I sometimes go out. Whatever the rest of the world may think of me now, I was always considered a great singer at home. But we all know each other. There’s no ‘stardom’ in Cape Verde.”
Bryan Ferry
These songs aren’t about “My wife is my best friend” love. More like lust and longing so intense it redlines into love. Obsessive love. Love on two bottles of Krug and maybe a puff of Mendocino’s best. Love that jets you out of this vale of struggle and anxiety into elegance and glory. Love that makes you, as one of his songs has it, a “slave” to love, love for which you’ll pay any price.
THINGS
Zojirushi Stainless Steel Vacuum Insulated Mug
It does exactly what it’s supposed to. Hot stays hot. Cold stays cold. For hours and hours.
and, of course…
Anthelios Sunscreen with Mexoryl
Dr. Darrell Rigel, clinical professor of dermatology at New York University: Mexoryl “is the No. 1 individual ingredient in terms of protection from Ultraviolet A radiation.”
Egyptian Magic
Burns, scrapes, skin irritations, diaper rash, sunburns, eczema, psoriasis — it’s the go-to cream. Dry skin? Sunburn? When an exceptional moisturizer is needed, we open the Magic.
BONUS VIDEO
