Christmas Day was actually great. For a few brief hours, everyone was well. Cindy's parents weren't doing so good when they arrived from Georgia a few days before Christmas and her dad especially was down for the count all the way up until Christmas morning. Cindy's sister Cheryl had been sick a few days earlier, then I got what I think was a combination of what both Cheryl and their dad had - a nasty stomach thing and a real energy-sapping virus. Then Cindy started feeling bad... But things are looking up. Cindy and I have both slept a lot, eaten a lot of soup and relaxed in front of the TV.
During my waking hours, I've been getting to know Cornell Woolrich and Roberto Bolano via Woolrich's Rear Window and Other Stories and Bolano's Last Evenings on Earth. Both are fascinating, yet very different writers. Woolrich's collection begins with "Rear Window," the film version just about everyone on the planet has seen (but probably hasn't read), followed by four other noir stories, two of which I finished today: "Post-Mortem" and "Three O'Clock." These stories are absolutely gripping, so filled with tension and suspense you'll think you're going to grind your teeth into chalk. Whew!
Bolano is just as gripping, although perhaps not as urgently gripping as Woolrich. I'm not quite halfway through the collection (which I'm actually reading as a warm-up to tackling the massive 2666), but three stories, "Sensini," "Enrique Martin," and "The Grub" are standouts. All of the stories (at least so far) deal with writers and the writing life, but are also so much more. Not for nothing are people going goo-goo over Bolano.
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