“Some of the essays are the literary equivalent of the Buddhist meditation on the skull, which is meant to use the sense of impending death as an impetus to love the juicy, impermanent life at hand. How fortunate for the reader that life, for this author is music…”
Poet, Visual Artist, Educator, Psychologist, Katherine Williams on Bermuda Shorts!
Dear Jimmy,
I was delighted to receive a copy of your handsome book. The cover is beautiful – how fine that the cover art is by your own collage goddesses! I love the irregular edges, the jacket fold, the font, the color of the paper – and the then-and-now pictures of you inside the back flap and on the back cover. How we do change and yet remain the same.
The book is a celebration of your particular sensibility, your style, your wide capacity for disgust and delight. And it’s really good!
I wanted to write you now lest I get swept up in the next few weeks of activity, leaving you to imagine my response to be anything less than applause. The short story is admirably tight. I am amazed at how much factual and emotional information you have managed to insert in the first page and a half, all the while making it sound as natural as an old guy shooting the breeze can sound. The tone is perfect – the idea of comparing the nurse on her shift to a mechanic on duty gives the reader the sense that the narrator has the necessary distance from life to be embedded in it and survive.
Some of the essays are the literary equivalent of the Buddhist meditation on the skull, which is meant to use the sense of impending death as an impetus to love the juicy, impermanent life at hand. How fortunate for the reader that life, for this author is music, hard work when you love the work, sports, a wise baseball-loving mother, Jesus (but not the organized church), good scotch, the spine of a beautiful book (but not the swine of a professor who likes to hear himself talk about said book), a cedar-strip boat named Charley, breasts smaller than Amanda Gay’s, political debate, and the stars over Clovelly. A delicious mix indeed!
Thank you so much for sending the book, and for writing it. I am thrilled that Alan Squire Publishing is now flourishing. Best wishes on this venture – and thanks for a lovely read.
Fondly,
Katherine Williams
May 16, 2010