on the paper trail

The New York Times has got some interesting literature up as of late.

Joan Didion's essay, "After Life," adapted from her new book, The Year of Magical Thinking, is a brutally intimate portrait of death and grief on the unexpected death of her husband. It's surprisingly moving without a trace of gushing from what must still be an open wound.

From the first (long-winded) chapter of Bob Spitz's new Beatles biography, whose 600+ pages are still taunting me, unread, from my bookshelf.

Part science, part philosophy, from the first chapter of Diane Ackerman's An Alchemy of Mind, a book on the nature of memories:

"We tend to think of memories as monuments we once forged and may find intact beneath the weedy growth of years. But, in a real sense, memories are tied to and describe the present. Formed in an idiosyncratic way when they happened, they're also true to the moment of recall, including how you feel, all you've experienced, and new values, passions, and vulnerability. One never steps into the same stream of consciousness twice. All the mischief and mayhem of a life influences how one restyles a memory."

A review by Jonathan Rosen of Harold Bloom's Jesus and Yahweh: the Names Divine.

"What ultimately gives this book its power and poignancy is the image of a 74-year-old Jew, crying out to a silent God who nevertheless "won't go away." What could be more normative than that?"

The book sounds like a well informed re-examination of an ever convoluted religious and biblical history. (Anyone want to buy me a holiday gift? ... anyone?)