Etgar Keret - Obscure? Sure...

        

A co-worker introduced me to this author...Etgar Keret, from Israel. He writes stories that are kind of strange, sometimes sad, sometimes very touching and sweet, and often leaving the reader (or at least me) with questions or observations to ponder.

I read The Nimrod Flipout. Many of the stories are super short, less than two pages. Sometimes there is something unusual...a talking fish, shrinking parents, a couple who gives birth to a horse...and sometimes not, sometimes regular life things with Keret's own twist.

One of my favorite stories was Surprise Egg, where a woman gets killed in a suicide bombing, which is of course very sad. But when they do the autopsy, they find she's filled with tumors, she was actually near death with this undiagnosed cancer. The pathologist struggled with whether or not to tell the husband when he came to identify the body, "look, your wife was going to die anyway".

A Good-Looking Couple has a man and a woman having sex for the first time in his apartment. The story is from his point of view, and hers. And the cat has an opinion. So does the door. The television gets to put in its two cents as well.

In the first story, Fatso, a man meets a beautiful woman, they get involved. The only strange thing is that at night, she changes into an ugly, fat, boorish man. This does affect the relationship a bit, though not as much as you might think.

Other times Keret will use a kiss. Or being naked. Or one word a baby won't say to bring something poignant or just interesting to the surface.

I really liked these stories.

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Death and Dying and NOT Airy-Fairy

A woman with long gray hair tied up on her head asked me if we had any books by David Kessler.

"On death and dying?", she said. "I'd like to see anything by him."

I took her over to the death and grieving section and showed her his books. She looked at them for a few moments and then said, "I don't want this. Why would someone suggest THIS to me? This isn't what I wanted at ALL."



A man came up to her and said, "How's it going?"

"I'm grumbling," she said.

"I can see that," he said, smiling. They got up and walked away. A few minutes later, she came up to me and said, "Okay, maybe you can help me find what I'm looking for. I want to know about the physical part of the dying process, what happens to the body when it's dying. I don't want that airy-fairy stuff."

"Ah," I said. "Right, the death and dying section doesn't really deal with the physical part. We have a medical reference section over here, here is a section on specific diseases or conditions, then here's medical reference, these are pretty technical, though" (and I'm thinking as I'm walking and talking) "I'm not sure there will be anything specifically on dying. Over here, on the other side, there are some books about aging, these actually might have something about dying."

"Let me tell you what's going on," she said. "My mother is in hospice, she's dying. Right, well, that's why she's in hospice. She's living with us. And I want to know what's happening to her, I want to be able to help her and I want to know. Some doctor recommended that Kessler guy, that's not what I wanted at all."

I knelt down to look at the Aging section (with which I am quite familiar). "There are several about caring for aging parents, a lot of them are dealing with people just starting to think about when parents having to move out of their homes, and into a care facility and all the ramifications of that, and you're beyond all that (she's nodding the whole time). However, at the end of these books many of them deal with the end stages of life. There are quite a few about Alzheimer's..."

"She has dementia," she said. "And she's getting close to the end, she hasn't been able to drink anything for a few days now."

"Ah. Well, this one is excellent." I point to The 36 Hour Day. It does start with early diagnosis and so on, but it does also talk about the very end. And this one by Gail Sheehy is about being a caregiver, she talks about how it is for YOU. It also might talk about the end stages. There are several others here that are about caring for aging parents, and they go through a lot of situations, and up until the end." I pull several books off the shelf and hand them to her.

     

"This is great, this is just what I'm looking for," she said. "I really appreciate all the time you've taken with me, this is just what I needed. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome. Good luck with everything."

Send email to: 2of3Rs@gmailDOTcom.

Customers 12

A customer was checking out with her purchases. There were three booksellers close by.

She said, "I'm looking for a book, it starts with the letter "C".

"The book starts with "C" or the author starts with "C"?, one of us asked.

"The author starts with "C". He has a new book out.", she said.

"Clive Cussler?", I asked?

"No, not him," she said.

"Do you know any titles of any of his books?"

"No, I don't know any titles of his books. But he's very good looking, he and his wife are a lovely couple. He has sort of a partial beard," she said.

This is not helping.

"He died today," she said.

That's better, but it's still not coming up for any of us. We were trying.

"Tony Curtis died yesterday, I know he's more of an actor, but...," said a bookseller.

"Oh no," she said disgustedly. "It's not Tony Curtis, I don't care about him."

Finally one of the booksellers surreptitiously pulled out her cell phone that had access to the internet.

"Stephen Cannell died today, is it him?", the bookseller said.

"Yes! That's it! Oh he was a wonderful writer, he was in his 60's. How did you ever come up with his name?"

***************************

"Do you have a restroom in here?", a customer asked.

"We sure do. There's a green sign on the wall just over there." I gestured toward the direction of the restroom.

"And the sign says restroom?," she asked.

"Um, yep, that's what it says," I said.

(I wanted to say, "No, the sign actually says Free Hot dogs". But I didn't.)

You can email me, Bibliophile, at 2of3Rs@gmailDOTcom.

Some Sadness and Some Dogs

A woman came up to me by the information desk. She was mid 50's-ish, short, high-lighted hair, very tan, and wearing one of those long ragged edged sweatshirts that are supposed to look cheap but are actually really expensive. She seemed almost frantic. She asked if we had a novel in which the main character is dealing with recovery and drug use.

"Hmm, well, this isn't a novel, but what about Beautiful Boy and Tweak?", I said. "I'm not exactly sure what you're looking for, but this is about drug use and the first one is from the dad's point of view and the Tweak is from his son, the user's point of view."

"I thought of those, but he relapses after the book. That's not good. My daughter is in recovery and I don't want that for her. She's read all the books that are specifically about addiction...Melody Beattie, etc., she's read all that. Committed it to memory, pretty much. My daughter is in recovery but she keeps getting involved with men and then gets sidetracked from what she needs to be doing for her recovery. I want to get her something to read where someone is dealing with their recovery."

"Has she read James Frey's A Million Little Pieces? In that book he's in recovery..."

"She LOVED that, that was great."

          

"Oh wait...again, this isn't a novel, but what about Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp? I just finished reading that. She's an alcoholic and keeps getting involved with men and she can't see how her alcohol addiction is getting in the way of her relationships."

"Hmm, I don't know...does she get out of it?"

"Yep", I said confidently. "By the end of the book she stops living with men because she realizes she has to get herself together and work on her recovery before she can be involved with men."

"That sounds perfect." She stopped, "except my daughter used meth, not alcohol. Where is it?" I took her to the Biography section and handed her a copy.

                         

When I told Therapist about it later, she suggested that I could have given her Caroline Knapp's next book, Pack of Two, where the author is in recovery and realizes that she can't even be in a relationship with people, so she gets a dog. I haven't read that one yet. It's on my list.

                         

******************

An older couple brought up The Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds.

                         

"Are you looking for a new dog? Or do you have a dog...?", I asked.

"We just lost our dog. A King Charles Spaniel. And we're trying to decide whether to stick with the same breed for our next dog, or get a different breed this time."

"They are nice dogs," I said. "We're getting a springer spaniel next week", I told them.

"Oh, that's great. The King Charles spaniels are great dogs. He was so wonderful."

"How old was he when he died?" I asked.

"He was 10. That breed is known for heart problems. We're lucky to have the time we did with him."

"It's hard to lose a dog, even if you know it's coming," I said. "I'm sorry you lost him...and good luck with your search!"