“How can I be kind? How can I find bird-relief in the nest-building of day-to-day? Necessity supplies no velvet wing with which to escape. I am indeed and mortally pierced with the seeds of love.”
Remembering Elizabeth Smart on her birthday.
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By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept and the Assumption of the Rogues & Rascals | 
“How can I be kind? How can I find bird-relief in the nest-building of day-to-day? Necessity supplies no velvet wing with which to escape. I am indeed and mortally pierced with the seeds of love.”
Remembering Elizabeth Smart on her birthday.
pickHeady stuff! I first read this at age 20 (borrowed from my then girlfriend) and nostalgia got the better of me when I saw this copy in Waterstones. Hmmm... I like it less now than I did before. The writing is either luscious or overblown, depending on your view, and there is something at once beautiful and monstrous in Smart's giving of herself wholesale to this great love of hers, the misery of it no less than the ecstacy, and expressing it so.
Miss K and I went to Bristol yesterday to see an exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints. Very interesting!
We made a detour to Waterstones on the way back to the train station. I've decided that, provided I am actually writing, poetry books don't count towards my book-buying quota. So I came away with Raymond Antrobus, Kaveh Akbar, and Sean Borodale's latest.
Attrib. and By Grand Central Station... have been on my wishlist for a while.
Librarians on the loose in Seattle #elliottbaybooks #bibliomania
so-soMixed feelings here.
There‘s something brave about vulnerability. And there‘s something powerful in Smart‘s love for this man. She is ready to face all criticism & ostracism for him. She sees it as inevitable. Don‘t we all want a love so true in our lives?
Yet knowing how this ends (it‘s based on events in the author‘s life) hurts the potency of this paean to love.
So if you want to read this, read nothing else about it until afterwards.
pickDifficult. Read to my partner. Achingly honest.
Wow only one page in.. I hereby abandon all the books I should be reading.
This is always my busiest week of the year so I am MIA but I'll take a few minutes to share some new books in.
1/4 - some of you Canadian Littens have peaked my curiosity on this one
☝ As one would probably do these days. I'm with you guys. I'm here. I'm ready. I'M HERE I'M QUEER AND I'M READY TO FUCK THESE ASSHOLES UP (i'm probably the least violent person ever, just wanted to make that clear. i'm just very angry.)
Oh littens, I want to write out every sentence in this book for you as a quote. It is so beautiful.
"Do you really think you're going to read before I've been fed???" So much contempt for such a little kitty.
I had big plans today to go downtown, but it's so horrible outside! Snuggled up with a (now fed and) happy kitty and a cup of tea instead. ☕️ #catsoflitsy
Watching Netflix while while cooking (and eating) dinner and found a crazy documentary to watch about people in love with objects. This woman just broke up with the Eiffel Tower (they asked her to stop visiting after her commitment ceremony brought a lot of bad press) and she is now dating that crane 😳🤔
After this, I'm going to start By Grand Central Station with one of my favourite #readingsnacks... wine! 😋🍷 #booktober
Another reason for loving "By grand central..." is the wealth of beautiful and excellent quotes. This quote comes back to me every few months and then I have to reread the whole passage...
#booktober #longtitles
For today's #booktober #longtitles challenge, here's one of my all-time favourites!
By grand central...tells the true story of Elizabeth Smart and her love for, and affair with a married man- at the time so scandalous that they are repeatedly arrested for obscenity!
I love the continuous prose style, the anger, the affection and the sensuous dialogue.
pickStunning prose, a force of nature. More a poem than a story and like an artwork it hits you with emotion first, leaving you to piece the narrative together. Unhinged passion reminded me of Days of Abandonment. Chock-full of diamonds like:
"But I love her and her silence is propaganda for sainthood."
"... we lie like lizards in the sun, postponing our lives indefinitely."
I bought this on the strength of the first page, plus the handy size and smart cover (no pun intended!). Excited to start reading ... 😊
I inadvertently bought these today - I love novellas, any book small enough to fit in my bag, especially for summer travel. Elizabeth Smart had me with this:
"Behind her he for whom I had waited so long, ... shuffles up to the event which too much anticipation has fingered to shreds."
