It was pub. week and friends brought or sent flowers, in some cases flowers that matched the colors on the book’s cover. Exhibit A, Exhibit B, Exhibit C.
On Monday, the first day of the pub. week, I had to go to the doctor for my annual physical, the date having been fixed an eternity ago. The doctor gave me a clean bill of health (well, she gave me a mixed review, I was to eat less carbs and avoid sugary things) but what really helped my blood pressure was finding in the waiting room there a copy of the new Chronogram, our Hudson Valley magazine, and reading a fine review of the book.
The book-buyer for the Center for Fiction posted a review calling My Beloved Life “a rare find” but what I liked most of all was the part where after quoting Jadu, one of my protagonists, who says about himself, “I am, by profession, poor,” the reviewer adds, “But Jadu is rich in love.”
During this pub. week that has just ended, I too have been rich in love.
In fact, even earlier, by which I mean a few days before the pub. date, an annoyingly misleading review of the book came out, and one of my Cullman colleagues, the truly talented Caoillin Hughes, quickly brought me a refreshing drink to wash away the taste of malice left on my tongue. On Monday night, at the book launch at McNally Jackson, my fellow fellows from the Cullman Center were present in strength. Photo 1. Photo 2. I was involved in a wonderful conversation that night with Hua Hsu. Many friends were in the audience. To really bring alive the “rich-in-love” theme, also present at the event were former students from Vassar, some of whom aren’t even in this picture. Even my publicist at Knopf happens to be my former student! She helped publish my essay at Literary Hub, a piece about various writers writing about the death of their father.
The next morning, which was the actual pub. day, there was a lovely message from my publisher. I had worked on a piece about writing a novel with pictures for my Canadian publishers and it appeared that day. That night, I was honored by my friends at Yaddo. We had a party where we ate and drank and I was able to thank my supporters, not only my editor and agent but also the fine people who had read the novel and provided me blurbs.
The next day I drove to Cambridge, Mass. for my next event with my main man, Teju Cole. A good time was had by all. Maybe too much of a good time. A dear friend in California door-dashed us a hangover cure. Once again, the presence of friends in the audience, so rich in love. And former students, one of whom gave me an extraordinary gift, a small book made with copper, with etchings, half of them drawing on my art-work and the other half his own.
One more outing this week, this time to RiffRaff Bookstore in Providence, RI. RiffRaff is now owned by Vassar alum Lucas Mann and Ottavia De Luca. Lucas, a nonfiction writer of probing honesty, was my advisee more than a decade ago. Last night, at my reading, there were other folks from Vassar, for instance, @livesinpages with their admittedly biased view of the proceedings. This morning, I spent some quality time with Lucas’s little daughter.
I know, I know, I have been giving a sense of a world inhabited by Vassar alum. But the particular pleasure of sending a new book out in the world is that you meet new readers, either in person or online. Last night at RiffRaff, during Q&A, someone asked what I had been reading. One of the titles I mentioned was a book by Eva Baltasar, a book offering a new language of desire. A woman in the audience smiled and touched her cheeks as if she was checking to see how hot they had grown suddenly—it turned out she was the book’s translator, Julia Sanches! I quickly hugged her and asked the bartender to get her a drink on my tab. And then sent this selfie of us to the friend who had first recommended the book to me.
If you are still reading this, you are rich in love. I’m composing this in a train. Early tomorrow morning, I leave for Washington University, St. Louis where I’ll be staying for several days, delivering lectures, etc.
Oh, how rich in love. And the great inheritance of such wonderful students--how lucky, I always feel, to have been in their company-- you have sent out into the world and then all the friends and colleagues who follow your work and cheer you on. So you put out your open heart and then everyone walks into it. All the love comes from that.
Rich in love indeed, so thoughtful. Few of my favorite people in this post : Teju Cole, Mimosaishere and my favorite bookstore Brookline booksmith .
I can’t wait to read the book.