One of the things that I find haunting or difficult to accept is that I only get one life. I’m condemned to being myself, and I have to be me until the end. In a way, being a novelist allows me to get around that problem…
But what you’re talking about and what I’m talking about might be closer than you think. Because what you’re describing I also feel. Especially when I’m in the middle of a project and I close my laptop and return to my own life, I feel that sense of indescribable gratitude that I am alive on this earth, that my loved ones are a part my life and that I can experience the sensory reality of the earth that we share.
— Sally Rooney, in “Sally Rooney Thinks Growth is Overrated” (NY Times Interview by David Marchese, September, 21, 2024)
Sally Rooney’s new book Intermezzo is released tomorrow. Here’s the Irish Times book review. She is the best selling author of Conversations with Friends (2017), Normal People (2018), and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021).
i love that woman. So that‘s one of the perks of being a writer! I tried to ‚get‘ that interview already but no chance; they protect their paying readers jealously.
Thanks for that great start.
Hi Kiki. Are you not able to access the interview via this link: https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01j8cz2hmk4dwekxs70nyafmfw
yes, thank you so much. I would find SO MUCH to discuss about her words in that interview, questions popped up, and just how lucky are you to be able to read all this! I‘m not envious, just wish I could still and also participate. But you got good people around your table who all have valuable opinions on your reading matters – I take what I can get! 😉
Have you picked up Intermezzo yet? This – the greatest paradox – loving life and the people in one’s orbit to infinity and beyond (Buzz Lightyear) and trying to grapple with the universal undeniable – that we get but one ride. And…she’s off to Panic Central where she will cogitate and perseverate until her thoughts are like mush
No! I thought this book first releases tomorrow. Do you get special privileges from Publisher or Author and get early copies?
No special dispensation – pre-ordered it and thought you were the one with the special privilege 🥴
Yes thank you🙏💕
‘that sense of indescribable gratitude.’ -this
Exactly!
Never was those words so true in our (fragile) world.
Agree!
“I feel that sense of indescribable gratitude that I am alive on this earth, that my loved ones are a part my life and that I can experience the sensory reality of the earth that we share”
Wow. Thinking about all of the wonderful people we cross paths with each morning. Sharing a few words, the same space, cool air, stunning nature…. Only to return to their own lives as the sun rises.
How lucky are we? Especially since this is our “one and only life”
Thank you for this DK.
Thanks Cara, and Agree!
it‘s great that you‘ve both learned to appreciate each other…. sincere compliments to truly outstanding contributions on your blog! (yeah, I know you were ‚just‘ bantering…. but it was getting a bit tiresome)
Hard to agree with your gratitude when my son passed away a year ago… But that is just my opinion. It’s not easy living in a beautiful worked heartbroken.
Wow. So sorry to hear that. No, it can be easy, not at all.
I meant world