A century of words
As 2000 draws to a close, there will be hundreds of recommendations for book, film, or album of the year. Well, I’ll get in early with the book choice, then. I remembered just tonight about Anthropology and a Hundred Other Stories by Dan Rhodes. This book is a masterpiece of simplicity — 101 stories, each of 101 words, mostly about relationships, passion and (particularly) obsession. It’s surreal, comic, sad and romantic — often in the short space of one story. And each story says so much, but so very economically. I can’t resist quoting Sailing, one of my favourites from the book:
“My girlfriend cannot play the guitar. She strums slowly, erratically and woefully out of time. She sucks her lips in concentration, and sometimes stalls for as many as fifteen seconds between chord changes. When she stops playing, her eyes are bright with anticipation. ‘OK. What was that?’
‘I’m not sure. Was it Moon River?’
‘No.’ She looks disappointed. ‘It was We Are Sailing. You know, by Paul McCartney.’ She starts another, and I know I won’t be able to identify it, no matter how hard I try. This has been going on for seven perfect years. I hope she never learns.”
Brilliant. I can’t praise this book highly enough. I bought it for five people this year, and all of them loved it (well, to be fair, one person didn’t give me their reaction, but I’m assuming …), and it may be going on the shopping list for at least two more people this Christmas.