Book du Jour

A coupla weeks ago in Leesburg I was at one of those amazing book fairs which offered as many books as you could stuff into a bag for $10. I saw this book, a book I'd never heard of, and grabbed it. Not because I like Orwell - I loved Animal Farm but hated 1984 - but because in the previous months I'd visited both Paris and London (thanks, Brothatime!!)

Last night I pulled it out and...frankly, it's intoxicating.

“It is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out. You have talked so often of going to the dogs - and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.”

There's something about this notion that reminds me of all the years I spent at 100 Metro...living like a rat, but with the comfort of knowing it was as bad as it got, and I was fine.

"The Paris slums are a gathering for eccentric people - people who have fallen into solitary, half-mad grooves of life and given up trying to be normal or decent."

A stunningly honest, wound-opening book that is beyond wonderful right now.