THE ARCHIVIST

I've just begun "The Archivist" by Martha Cooley -- a gift from S while she was here helping me settle into the midwest. I sort of thought I would hate it because it feels like a Victorian novel: very slow paced with a lot of descriptions. This is a book of little stories, not as they occur, but as they happened. Nevertheless, it's easy to read and it makes me really crave some T.S. Eliot. The premise of the book (so far) is the developing relationship between an old, solitary archivist and a youngish doctorate student/poet at an unnamed university. The archivist is guarding the love letters between T.S. Eliot and Emily Hale; the backstories of the archivist and grad student are also unraveling. (These letters are real! And under protection by Princeton University until 2020.) Lots of unresolved family drama, death, and conversions -- of faith and love. The writing style isn't something I usually go for (or maybe its the protagonist's disconnect with the world that I'm uneasy with?), but the reverence for the poetry and music of the era is deeply felt. I unfortunately lost my copy of "The Wasteland" (T.S. Eliot), which had all my personal notes scribbled in the margins. Maybe nows the time to get a copy of his collected poems... If you want to skim through some of it, here's a copy online.

All right, I've got so many essays to write I may just have a good cry first.

xoxo t