I’ve been reading Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend on my Kindle for the last week or so and am almost done. At first I was surprised not to like it much. It reminded me of an extended Alice Munro story but with all the “meat” taken out. Lots of poverty and opaque parents and grudges held for the better part of lifetimes, in other words, without the sort of insight that Munro always brings to her work.. I am slowly changing my mind as the book proceeds, but I’m still not sure if my review will fall on the “mostly positive” or “mostly negative” side. We’ll find out.

I am also still working on the Obnoxiously Orange scarf. I got some good work done on it this weekend. My life is busy these days, mostly in good ways. I’m feeling inspired and challenged and creative and – well – tired. Once, when I was still teaching full-time, I told a counselor that I was so frustrated because when I got home at the end of the day I didn’t have energy for anything but crashing on the couch in front of the TV. I’ll never forget the counselor’s reaction. She looked at me like I was stupid for a moment and then said, “You do realize you’re describing the average American’s perfect life, right? A job that pays the bills and nothing to do at the end of the day but watch TV.” I didn’t think she was right (and still don’t), but who knows? If there’s one thing this election season is teaching me, it’s that the average American is a strange and elusive beast.

Yarn Along is hosted by Ginny on her blog, Small Things