While working on the Information Desk, we review trucks (aka wheeled carts) of returned materials in search of books to put on display. Inevitably, there are items that catch my eye. As a new series, I’d like to post about these little intrigues. Often it begins with the spine of the book, but there must be more than that to hold my attention.
So, let’s begin…
Goldberg: variations (M) by Gabriel Josipovici. I think of Gould. Only later, Bach. The cover is a sillouhette of a sorrowed or pensive man. The description on the back,
What gets me: “…seemingly unconnected stories.” I love looking for links between lives, and patterns of experience. I read the first page. Have to make myself stop. There is description of place, of people, and details whose specificity I don’t understand, but am sure will be important later. The insomniac describes himself as a philosopher. He asks challenging questions, and makes rich statements. The book makes me think of If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler and Cloud Atlas, but after reading about Bach’s Goldberg Variations, it seems that this is where much inspiration came – for structure as well as content.
The Tiny Wife (M) by Andrew Kaufman. Appropriately, a tiny book (in different shades of purple). It’s catalogued as Fantasy. The novella is about a robbery, which happens to take place in a bank, but the thief is not looking for money. On page 2, the thief says, “While this is a robbery…I demand only one thing from each of you and it is this: the item currently in your possession which holds the most sentimental value.” Is it too much of a stretch to see a connection between this book and Josipovici’s? Will we not also be comparing and contrasting stories of strangers? Nonetheless, an exploration into the things we value, set in Toronto, which could probably be read over lunch. I’m in.
