Friday, April 09, 2010

What I'm reading now


In case you were wondering why it has been so long since I last posted a blog entry, it's because I am inundated by a book. That's right, just the one. It's called Redeeming Features by Nicholas Haslam,and it's basically a memoir by an interior decorator. The book is filled with flowery prose in which every chair cushion is described, and once again I am left wondering why some people can remember every stick of furniture and what everyone is wearing, in addition to times, dates and places, and I can't remember what I had for lunch. In case you think I am exaggerating about the level of description, here are a few sample sentences:
  • "From the lapels, one set with a crimson carnation, down to the razor-edge creases so perfectly arranged, he seemed like an elf sculpted in mercury, his dark tie and glossily shod feet sudden shards of obsidian."
  • "Crumbling walls were fragrant with mimosa and jasmine, peppery with the scent of Malmaison carnations." (yes, the prose is literally flowery)
  • "Below, in an equally cramped pitch-pine kitchen, Chuck would cook ambitiously elaboate dinners for his musical friends, Samuel Barber, the gentle and modest composer of Vanessa, an opera that I had seen at the old Met; Leonard Bernsein, who, besides being clearly jealous of Chuck's relationship with me, I found unbearably false and conceited; and the wonderfully funny Earl McGrath, a skinny boy with glistening eyes and a drooping Proustian mustache, at the time Gian Carlo Menotti's secretary." (there's also a tad bit of name dropping)
Eventually I am sure, I will finish this book and make my way, ever so gently, back to what's left of this crumbling civilization.