“Shriver’s debut is a ‘literary’ novel without an iota of pretentiousness. It reads with the grace of a well-written spy story, but conveys some of its author’s early wisdom about what our humanity both demands of and grants us.” —Washington Post
The first novel by the New York Times bestselling author Lionel Shriver, The Female of the Species is the exotic and chilling story of a highly independent and successful woman’s late-life romantic education, in all its ecstasy and desperation
Still unattached and childless at fifty-nine, world-renowned anthropologist Gray Kaiser is seemingly invincible—and untouchable. Returning to make a documentary at the site of her first great triumph in Kenya, she is accompanied by her faithful middle-aged assistant, Errol McEchern, who has loved her for years in silence. When sexy young graduate assistant Raphael Sarasola arrives on the scene, Gray is captivated and falls hopelessly in love—before an amazed and injured Errol’s eyes. As he follows the progress of their affair with jealous fascination, Errol watches helplessly from the sidelines as a proud and fierce woman is reduced to miserable dependence through subtle, cruel, and calculating manipulation. — Book promo @ Amazon
Don’t you just love the English language. A good example: “Your fingers have fingertips, but your toes don’t have toetips. Yet, you can tiptoe, but not tipfinger.”
More rain last Tuesday morning that lasted most of the day and into the night with more on Wednesday morning when I drove into Reserve for my last shopping trip here this summer then more off and on during the rest of the day. I found Ella’s to be open again for breakfast which was good. I prefer Ella’s to Smokey’s but Ella’s is unreliable about opening at their posted days and times. Then went to Jake’s and was able to pick up the case of Skyr yogurt that has taken almost a month to arrive.
The rain this past Tuesday and about a week ago both caused a roof leak on my bed. I’m sick of all the rain that there has been here this summer and the wet bed does not improve my thoughts about it. The fact that I spent the money to have the roof re-coated in May does not make me feel very good either. I have had the roof re-coated twice and leaks ‘fixed’ 3-4 times and I still get water in my bed!
The drive to my new camp was relatively uneventful but there is something about Silver City that Desperado does not like. Last year it was here that the heater hose blew off its connection to the engine and emptied all the coolant. That required a tow and repair which the shop in Reserve that did the engine swap reimbursed. It is a good shop. Today the switch for turning overdrive on and off in the transmission would not turn on after being turned off and the shifting was very ‘clunky’ in all the gears. I fixed it buy turning the engine off and then starting the engine again. Something is wrong with that switch or (?).
Total distance was only 160 miles on this route: NM12, US180 & Pine St in Deming. I stopped in Bayard for breakfast at La Mexicana Restaurant which was not bad but not all that good. What was good was they had vegetable tamales for sale and I got a dozen of them. I’ll comment on them when I eat some of them. I also stopped at Jimmy’s RV Repair and wanted to get an appointment for some work while I’m here in October. He said that the earliest appointment he could give me would be in November so I went away dissatisfied. I might go back and ask him if he can schedule me for next May or then again I might not.
The Escapee Dream Catcher RV Park is no longer an Escapee Park. I was told over a year ago that it was for sale and it is now under new management but still is called Dream Catcher RV Park. The woman that checked me in was great, there are not a lot of neighbors and it is NOT raining. The 10 day forecast is showing NO rain with high temperatures in the upper 70s to lower 80s and the lows in the mid 50s. I need a month of this if it proves to come true!
This posting by Kunstler is very good, don’t pass it up.
The leaves turn and the season quickens and, in a few weeks, comes an election more dreaded than all the slavering blood beasts of Halloween. Do you suppose, as I do, that America is tired of being insane? The pathetic part of this national nervous breakdown is how unnecessary it actually is. Our national problems are not that difficult to understand and correct. Here’s an inventory of them: Go to First Quit Pretending by James Howard Kunstler