Back to Reading . . .

Enough about my history and meager accomplishments. Let's get back to books. Over the past two-three weeks I've been perusing the 9-book series published by The Paris Review: Writers at Work--books I've found in used bookstores and online. These volumes, published over the span of a decade, are the best of The Paris Review interviews with writers. In a nutshell: inspiring, elucidating, illuminating.

Volume 5 is particularly striking to me, as it contains interviews with such luminaries as Pablo Neruda, John Cheever, Irwin Shaw, James Dickey, Joseph Heller, Gore Vidal, and Joyce Carol Oates. Even at 378 pages, I consumed this one in a day . . . and these interviews provided numerous insights into the writing lives of some of my favorite writers. I began read Cheever's short stories beginning in the 70s, and Shaw's novels and Heller's Catch-22 were staples for me in college. Vidal is a biggie on my shelves, too. And I've got an ample supply of Joyce Carol Oates novels, short-story collections, and poetry titles stuffed on shelves at my house, upstairs and down.

And as for James Dickey, he's renowned as a poet, but actually gained his fame from his novel, Deliverance. I've read the novel, seen the movie, and I have no desire to squeal like a pig.

But this, volume 5 of Writers at Work . . . I wasn't squealing, but I'm sure I was smiling as I read it.