I've let all my mag subscriptions except for new yorker and the believer run out, but with the New Yorker being weekly it is easy to get behind real quick.
add to that getting the latest issue of the ride journal and an issue of Cog magazine to try and it has taken me a while to be ready to read any of the plethora of books waiting for me next to my bed.
with that being said, I am onto the mar/apr issue of believer and saw that they awarded the 5th annual believer book award to Novel About My Wife by Emily Perkins. I really liked this book (it was my second favorite book of last year behind Netherland by Joseph O'Neill).
it reminded me of the story "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in its description of a women's seeming descent into madness only through her husband's eyes instead of hers. in other parts the descriptions of the couple's relationship and the troubles they have is true enough to remind everyone of the difficulty to be found in even a strong relationship.
it also includes one of my favorite passages about the loss of a person or a relationship:
That cliche - I can't imagine life without you - is bullshit. Of course you can imagine it. A poor, grey rag of a thing. Silence at the breakfast table and nobody to share the joke. Hollowness on waking. Sleeping at the wrong times. Uncoupled from the regular swing and tick of time. Doubled over in the supermarket, choking for breath by the freezer section, waving offers of help away, unable to meet their eyes. The shopping list in your hand not because there's so much to buy but because you can't hold anything in your brain. Buying her favourite biscuits. Six packets of them unopened in the cupboard at home. I could go on.
absolutely brilliant and real. I would recommend it if you haven't read it.
Next up for me is either A Dog In A Hat or The Rise and Decline of Nations
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