Sweet county

[muckefuck]

From the B. Kojo Laing novel I'm reading:

There seemed to be an edge to everything he said, and beyond this edge was a precipice which, of its own volition, was deepening over the years. His energy was the basis for most of his friendships, the speed of his mouth drew people to him, but eventually he built walls around himself with his gesticulating hands: those who wanted to persevere with him had to climb high over these walls, with patience.

This may be the turning point for me. It's a work of chained vignettes and I still haven't been able to tease out an arc, which has prevented me from getting too involved with any of the characters. But this chapter--about the marital tensions between a professor and his wife--finally had some emotional resonance for me.

Since it's the steamy heart of summer, I'm finally back to reading the Snopes Trilogy again. The first book is going quickly, not just because I've read it before but because it's not as dense as I remember. Of course, most of the density is associated with the bovine romance in the second half which I haven't gotten to yet, so we'll see how smoothly things go then. It's in a big fat hardback omnibus that I don't like carrying around, but making it my bedtime reading is problematic, too, because it's too good to set down easily.