Don't Miss "Getting Closer"

In this issue of  The New Yorker: a gorgeous story, "Getting Closer," by Stephen Millhauser.
I admire Millhauser's fiction...he is a fabulist and a minaturist--totally unique voice--nobody writes like him.

This story is rather short, but every sentence glitters with hard beauty like a jewel. And such suspense! You know something is going to happen, something important.

The idea of time--the mind's concept of time-- is explored beautifully through a young boy's ordinary afternoon at his family's picnic.

Satori, the Zen Buddhist term for a flash of sudden awareness--that's what this character experiences.

An excerpt:

Everything has led up to this moment. No, wrong, he isn’t there yet. The moment’s just ahead of him. This is the time before the waiting stops and he crosses over into what he’s been waiting for.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2011/01/03/110103fi_fiction_millhauser#ixzz19ywZwRdj

Late Bloomin' Writers

A fascinating article in this week's issue of the New Yorker by Malcolm Gladwell on late bloomers and artists--and late blooming writers.

One of my favorite lines:

If you are the type of creative mind that starts without a plan, and has to experiment and learn by doing, you need someone to see you through the long and difficult time it take for your art to reach its true level.

I guess you might say contemporary patron equals spouse.