Zadie Smith

            On Sunday morning I worked out the chords for “Mélodie interdite" (Forbidden Melody) by Serge Gainsbourg but I still have to run through the song in French and English to make sure before uploading it to Christian’s Translations. I might have it all posted by Monday. 

            I read another couple of chapters of On Beauty by Zadie Smith. At the poetry reading Carl is the champion. He goes up to Zora and surprises her with a big kiss on the mouth. It’s the first time she's been kissed by a boy, even though she's a senior in college. I find this book is overly described and a too long for the amount of substance it contains. I keep coming back to Alice Munro saying she’s never read a novel that couldn't have made a better short story. I think it’s true as well in this case but of course novels make more money. 

            I had saltines and old cheddar for lunch. I ended up taking a two hour siesta but I don’t know why I slept that extra half an hour. It’s not as if I felt extra tired when I laid down. Because I got up so late, after posting my blog there was less time for a bike ride before sunset. If I’d risen at 15:30 as usual I could have gone all the way to Yonge Street and back but in this case I only rode to Bloor and Dovercourt, south to Queen and then home. 

            I got almost two thirds of On Beauty read before dinner. The family is spending Christmas in England and then get word that Carlene Kipps, the wife of Howard’s academic and philosophical enemy Monty Kipps has died and the funeral is being held there in Britain. Kiki had become friends with Carlene. We also learn that the Kipps family has found a note from Carlene that she wants to give one of her rare paintings that is worth half a million pounds to Kiki. Monty and his children think it’s absurd and throw the hand written note in the fireplace. At the funeral Howard is moved to tears by the choir singing Mozart and by the coffin. He thinks of death and gets up and leaves. he walks to his father's house to visit him for the first time in four years. 

            I cut the black off the surface of one of the pork burgers I’d made the night before and broke up the good meat inside. I had it on bread pizza with salsa, cheddar and piri piri sauce. I had it with a beer while watching Andy Griffith. In this story Jim Lindsey the great guitar player who made it big after joining Bobby Fleet’s rock and roll band returns to Mayberry with a hero’s welcome. Jim reveals that he outgrew Fleet's band and is now just sorting through his offers. But the finance company repossesses Jim’s convertible red Mercedes and Jim begins running tabs in all of Mayberry’s stores. Andy figures something is wrong and he calls Bobby Fleet. Bobby comes to Mayberry and tells Andy that Jim quit because he wouldn’t let him in as an equal partner in the band. He says he’d be happy to take Jim back as his guitarist. Andy goes and arrests Jim for not paying his bills. After he’s in jail Jim has to listen to the offer of a raise and he accepts.

        I got to just 112 pages left of On Beauty before bed.  After the funeral Howard goes to Monty’s house to look for his wife and kids who were going there for the wake. While looking for the bathroom upstairs he accidentially opens the bedroom door of Monty’s  uncommonly gorgeous 18 year old daughter Victoria who is also a student in Howard’s Art History class. She’s drunk and insists on Howard fucking her, which he does.