And another thing I've been reading today is Mil Millington's website (courtesy of Andy B)! MM writes the Guardian column 'Things my Girlfriend & I have argued about'. This is just a repository for all the bumbling thoughts around the column. It's funny. And now I must get back to work.

And a book I just finished reading: The Feast by Anthony Sher

I think Monsieur Sher is a better actor than writer, but I was pretty compelled by this book all the same. It's about a theatre director, Felix, in a troubled African nation. Felix is an alcoholic, and, the day he decides to go to a drying-out clinic in the US, the dictator, Duma, is deposed. He arrives back dry, and not a little confused. Has everything in his country changed or is it all still frighteningly the same? Re-integrating himself back into his old life isn't so easy. He decides to put on a big show at his theatre, starring...Duma.

I liked the theatrical detail. And some of the writing in the earlier part of the book particularly is poetic as well as dramatic.

Nice quote: "he tried to figure out what the opposite of an artist was, and, unable to decide, started to dance."

Makes me think about other books about being an artist (Pictures of Fidelman, Ulysses. Felix's response to the impossibility of expressing his thoughts in one medium is a creative, artistic one (dance). And, importantly, a non-verbal medium.

Ok. Change of direction pour la blog. I'm going to use it to keep a track of books I have read. How fascinating.

What I'm currently reading:
The Women's Room

Nice quote: "shit and string beans"

Most of the Amazon reviews say things like "I read this 20 years ago and it changed my life." Although it's unlikely to do that for me I feel, it doesn't take the daughter of a Feminist to sense the radical and groundbreaking effect this must have had on women when it was published. True, it now feels a bit of a historical curio, but I find myself slightly unnerved by it all the same. It's a big, brave attempt to articulate the reality of women's lives in fifties and sixties America. Mira gets married, has kids, does her housewifely duty, gets divorced and goes back to university. In the liberated noughties there wouldn't really be a story in this...or would there? I can't help feeling that plus ca change etc. for some women, sadly.