Fall reading
Oct. 2nd, 2003 11:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaneramosMonths ago I bought Timothy Findley's The Headhunter, his most important novel that I haven't read yet.
For those unfamiliar with Canadian Literature, Findley was one of our most cherished living writers until he died last year; he was gay, out of the closet, and my hero. I wrote to him years ago while I was still living the straight life, after reading The Pianoman's Daughter. He sent a warm and generous reply, which I kept. If I had had the guts, I believe we might have started a correspondence. This is one of my life's regrets, that I didn't write back. By the time I met him in person four years ago he was sick and frail and I had lost my chance.
Anyway, I bought The Headhunter, but someone told me it's like a sequel to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I should read that first. Of course I didn't have it, and never thought of picking it up on the rare occasion I entered a bookstore with money to spend. So Findley waited on my shelf for a year or so.
Yesterday afternoon at The Bookshelf, I saw Heart of Darkness on sale for $6.99, less than half price. It was in the same bin where I picked up The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature a few weeks ago for $14.99, a quarter of the price of the hardback copy elsewhere in the store. I couldn't justify passing up bargains like those.
For those unfamiliar with Canadian Literature, Findley was one of our most cherished living writers until he died last year; he was gay, out of the closet, and my hero. I wrote to him years ago while I was still living the straight life, after reading The Pianoman's Daughter. He sent a warm and generous reply, which I kept. If I had had the guts, I believe we might have started a correspondence. This is one of my life's regrets, that I didn't write back. By the time I met him in person four years ago he was sick and frail and I had lost my chance.
Anyway, I bought The Headhunter, but someone told me it's like a sequel to Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, I should read that first. Of course I didn't have it, and never thought of picking it up on the rare occasion I entered a bookstore with money to spend. So Findley waited on my shelf for a year or so.
Yesterday afternoon at The Bookshelf, I saw Heart of Darkness on sale for $6.99, less than half price. It was in the same bin where I picked up The Columbia Anthology of Gay Literature a few weeks ago for $14.99, a quarter of the price of the hardback copy elsewhere in the store. I couldn't justify passing up bargains like those.
