I took a class in early American literature in my sophomore year of college. I am cloudy on why this period interested me at the time. Cotton Mather, Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, Thoreau. Writers only an English major would want to read.
Every day as class began our professor intoned, “This world clean fails me; still I yearn.” That’s from Herman Melville’s poem, Clarel, from 1876. I think of that every single day in the chaos and misery of these solitary pandemic times. Will we get to a good old days again? Weren’t we supposed to be alerted when they were over? (And come to think of it, was it on 9/11? It took a long time, but we smiled again, saw our loved ones, even flew again, enjoyed parties, weddings, births, christenings, bar and bat mitzvahs – rites of passage that happen with or without celebrations and caterers. We bade our loved ones goodbye too, with pain and heartbreak and incredulity.)
For some it might have been Hurricane Katrina, or Hurricane Sandy, or the tsunami in Japan, or any of a number of natural disasters. Or maybe the good old days ended when children and their teachers were assassinated at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, or at the Pulse nightclub that horrible night in 2016, or when Trump was inaugurated in 2017, or at the Parkland high school on Valentine’s Day, 2018 or when the Boston Marathon finish line was bombed in 2013, or when George Floyd was killed for no reason by brutal cops a few months ago.
If you were directly affected by this heedless violence, you probably haven’t had a good old day ever since. My thoughts are with you. And thoughts aren’t enough, I know. We know.
Besides being active and trying to help those in need, the other thing I’ve found that helps is fiction. If you get involved in a compelling book, you tacitly accept the terms and goes where the author leads you. You have nothing to do but follow.
Lisa Birnbach and author Daphne Merkin
My guest this week is the novelist and essayist Daphne Merkin. Her new novel is 22 Minutes of Unconditional Love, and it gave me respite for the days I read it. We used to know one another in college and haven’t actually seen one another since then.
I loved talking to her and think you’ll enjoy her.
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Lisa’s five things for this week:
1. My friend Shelley’s sour cherry pie. It was made of the end-of-season crop and it had a gorgeous lattice-patterned crust. Dennis’ roast chicken was wonderful too. Eaten in a secret garden in Soho, with distance and candles.
2. My mother’s birthday dinner. She’s 90, but looks 80. We took her out for two different dinners last week. I know this world clean fails her, but still she goes to the beauty parlor.
3. My Exhibits™. They’re all doing exciting things, making their own way in their careers. All independent and creative, and all on their own.
4. The understanding I have with my feet, that I will not be wearing high heels anytime soon. I wore sandals with heels to my mother’s second birthday dinner, and my left foot was sore for a whole day afterwards. It’s a bit of a bummer, but I accept it. I’m making it a positive.
Dr. Anthony Fauci
5. Dr. Fauci! Stay safe. My friend Sylvia sent me a note saying that he is actually somewhat stressed out, and a friend of hers has sent him a thank you note for his great service to this country. I will do the same.
If you’re interested, you can write him here:
Dr. Anthony Fauci c/o
NIAID Office of Communications and Government Relations
5601 Fishers Lane, MSC 9806
Bethesda, MD 20892-9806
Daphne Merkin’s 5 Things That Make Life Better
1. Discovering a great new book
2. Lying in the sun by a pool or on the beach
3. Listening to Patty Griffin
4. That moment in writing when I’m so absorbed, I forget about the time
5. Laughing hysterically about something with my daughter that only we’d get
6. Breyer’s mint-chocolate cup ice cream
More About Daphne Merkin
22 MINUTES OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: A NOVEL,
By Daphne Merkin
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Instagram @daphmerkin
Twitter @DaphneMerkin.
Her website is Daphne-Merkin.com
The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC https://thefieldtv.com
My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft.