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What are you reading? May 5, 2023 [1]

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Date: 2023-05-05

I am reading:

Patricia Highsmith: Her Diaries and Notebooks: 1941-1995 by Patricia Highsmith and Anna von Planta- From 1967 to almost the end of 1971. The abrasive, cynical, and bigoted Patricia Highsmith that is the stuff of legend is now overtly appearing in the pages of her diaries and notebooks. It really starts to appear after the death of her cat, Sammy, at the end of 1969 but really, it’s the realization that she’s still lonely and getting old.

I still kinda sorta like her, I still kinda sorta sympathize. I still kinda sorta feel sorry for her but I am certain that’s because I’m only meeting her on the page.

I assume that an unnamed “black woman professor who is an avowed Communist” that Highsmith devotes an entire (short) notebook entry to is Angela Davis.

6/2/69 Today I realized that I have enough carbon paper to last me the rest of my life— three boxes of it. That was the most depressing thought I have had in years. I was tempted to throw away one box, so I would not quite have enough carbon paper to last me the rest of my life... 5/15/70 America is now hesitating about employing a black woman professor who is an avowed Communist. It should be interesting & stimulating to have a Communist professor providing she lets her polemical ideas filter through now and then. No one balks at Christian professors. Christ was essentially a communist. No one fears that Americans will begin to practice what Jesus preached. Why fear the preaching of Communists or communists? 2/11/71 American togetherness or any other kind of togetherness gives to some people a sense of being alive. Just because the doorbell or the telephone is ringing, or there is some awful noise from somewhere, a certain type of person feels more alive. There is one way of killing off these people: put them in solitary confinement with desk, writing, and reading material, and they would go mad.

Suspect by Scott Turow - I expected, of course, the subplot involving The Weird One (TWO) to be interwoven into a significant part of the main plot but I could not have foretold the way that it happened. A little bit of a breezier read than I expect from Turow. I hope to see some of these characters in future novels. Only about 1/3 of the novel to go.

A friend of mine who immigrated from Poland taught me a Polish saying that translates as ‘Sometimes families only look good in pictures.’ Knowing my mom, it was probably a big plus to her for a long time that my dad and her made a gorgeous couple. They were on like the cover of the Wisconsin State alumni magazine twice, and in the suburban section of the Tribune. On his side, of course, it was always clear that she would inherit boatloads of money from her mother. But mostly, I think he liked how much smarter than him she was.

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