Book Review

I reviewed Part of the World by Robert Lopez for The Review of Contemporary Fiction.

Fog

Always Coca-Cola

There is something unspeakably gorgeous about a can of Coca-Cola. I just glanced at one and my heart leapt into my throat and my eyes welled with tears. It's like looking upon the stars and stripes fluttering bravely o'er the ramparts or like the Statue of Liberty looking serenely out of the harbor, or like seeing the glorious skyline of a great American city. It is constant and imperial and stirringly American.

ALWAYS COCA-COLA should be printed on our currency in place of IN GOD WE TRUST. Take that Salmon Chase!

Dinner

Jerk chicken breast, Jessica's roasted potatoes (garlic, black pepper, Parmesan), baby spinach and cremini mushroom salad in balsamic vinaigrette & black pepper.

Delicious with hard apple cider.

Numbness

The tip of my right toe is numb. It's been numb for a long time and I've always been vaguely concerned about it, but never very concerned. It hasn't blackened or peeled or, god forbid, fallen off. It's just a little numb. I can kind of feel pressure on it and when I push my fingernail into it very hard, I can almost feel a little twinge, but, uh, mostly it's just numb.

Also, sometimes my back goes numb. Never the whole back and never even most of my back, but some of my back sometimes is numb. It's happened sometimes for a while now and I've frequently remarked upon it to people present during the numbness, but I've not sought medical treatment. I guess I am not too concerned because numbness isn't as worrisome as pain and it doesn't hurt.

The thing about numbness is it can be disturbing. You can't feel it; it's numb. It's like blindness--sensation blindness, or like a impenetrable shadow or like a hole in your consciousness. A hole you're conscious of, but cannot account for. I can feel the muscles at the edge of the numb portion of my back. I can feel them pulling and pushing and rolling around. I can reach my hand back and dip my fingers into the emptiness and feel that my back is, in fact, there. It is as solid as the rest of me. It's just that in my head it is missing and that shadowy gap in my awareness is almost visible it's so real. With my numb toe, it is really as though my body ends before it actually ends. I know where my toe is and I can bump it along things, but it always makes contact a fraction of an inch sooner than I think it will. My knowledge of my toe and its surroundings ends before the toe itself does. And only my right toe. My left toe is precisely where it ought to be and all sensation is normal.

Dinner

Smoked turkey, muenster cheese, & pesto panini sandwich alongside Parmesan risotto with slivered almonds, cremini mushrooms & sautéed shredded spinach. Cheap delicious Soave to drink.

15 Grain Bread

Ingredients for the Pepperidge Farm 15 Grain Bread I purchased yesterday:

Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Sugar, Crushed Wheat, Wheat Gluten, Sunflower Seeds, Yeast, Contains 2 Percent or less of: Soybean Oil, Oats, Honey, Salt, Kibbled Barley, Kibbled Rye, Kibbled Triticale, Millet, Degerminated Yellow Corn Grits, Datem (Dough Conditioner), Flaxseed, Nonfat Milk (which adds a trivial amount of cholesterol), Distilled Monoglyceridies, Wheat Protein Isolate, Calcium Propionate (to retard spoilage), Soy Fiber, Soy Lecithin, Amaranth Flour, Brown Rice Meal, Buckwheat Flour, Flaxseed Meal, Millet Flour, Whole Quinoa Flour, Whole Sorghum Flour, Whole Spelt Flour, and Enzymes.

I've emboldened the various grains (and the enemy), but I'd like to share a few notes:
1) Most of this is wheat of some variety or another. I've italicized the real cheat which is
2) Each grain is makes up 2% or less of the bread! 2% isn't much and less could be--it could be none! This could just be wheat bread with sunflower seeds in it. It also contains 2% or less of unicorn testicle.
3) Triticale is a hybrid of wheat and rye--two already represented grains.
4) Datem is an emulsifier. It's an acronym for Di-Acetyl Tartrate Ester of Monoglyceride. MMMMMMMMmmmmmm...
5) Amaranth can be used as a cereal, but is, in fact, an herb.
6) To kibble means to coarsely grind.
7) Unicorn testicle isn't a grain, either.
8) Flax and soy aren't really grains.
9) Buckwheat is legit. It's just called buckwheat because it is used in much the same way as wheat.
10) Spelt is just biblical-talk for wheat, if you ask me. And yes, that is how it's spelt.
11) At most, there are only 14 grains here. Really, more like 6 or 7.

More on this later.

There Was Earth Inside Them by Paul Célan

There was earth inside them, and they dug.

They dug and they dug, so their day
went by for them, their night. And they did not praise God,
who, so they heard, wanted all this,
who, so they heard, knew all this.

They dug and heard nothing more;
they did not grow wise, invented no song,
thought up for themselves no language.
They dug.

There came a stillness, and there came a storm,
and all the oceans came.
I dig, you dig, and the worm digs too,
and that singing out there says: They dig.

O one, o none, o no one, o you:
Where did the way lead when it led nowhere?
O you dig and I dig, and I dig towards you,
and on our finger the ring awakes.

Translated by Michael Hamburger

Dinner

Grilled chicken breast on a toasted bakery roll. Risotto and green beans.
Spicy Rotini tossed with diced tomatoes. Not very good risotto, not a very attractive meal.