TNY weekend reader: all’s fair…
(image: carolita johnson)
Tad Friend’s portrait of his mother, not online, is as touching as it should be, but long (that’s what took me so long to get to this): “The Playhouse.” Odd that the byline in the contents says, “The house a mother built.” A mother? I think “my mother,” or “Mother” would have been more apt.
George Saunders’ “Shouts & Murmurs” piece, “Ask the Optimist,” is also on the long side, but devilishly cruel fantasies are almost never too long for me.
Nadine Gordimer’s “The First Sense,” subtly insightful and poignantly musical, has you thinking we’re talking about aural sex for a while.
And “The Good Book Business,” by Daniel Radosh, is a good update on the Bible’s reach and appeal if, like me, you only got to know the Bible in Latin and Ancient French in adulthood (I openly cheated my way to being “Christian Endeavor Youth Group leader,” and my “Confirmation” in my teens, in a bid to get myself kicked out, to no avail). And it’s probably better if you didn’t have the chance to translate the Bible for yourself and left it to surfers and ice-skaters!
