The action was so subtle and the conversations so dense I could scarcely blink for fear of missing something. I followed Lambert Strether to Paris as he tried to reclaim the errant playboy Chad Newsome and return him home to his mother. If the topic of conversation for our vacation was going to be The Ambassadors - that notoriously opaque Henry James novel published at the start of the 20th century - I would get to work straightaway.Īnd work it was. He was my lawyer and both better read and a more thoughtful reader than anyone I'd ever known. That Jim was neither a boyfriend nor a writer didn't matter. I once wanted to teach a college course called "Books I Read for Men" that would comprise all of the enormous texts I'd slogged through to impress various boyfriends. Writers press books hard on other writers it's how we test each other, communicate with each other, love each other. I'm no stranger to people telling me "You must read this" and meaning it as more than a passing suggestion. When my friend, Jim, first invited me to spend part of my summer vacation with him, he sent a note about our planned activities: "We will be discussing The Ambassadors." In Ann Patchett's most recent novel, Run, she predicts Barack Obama's re-election in 2012.
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