A COSMOPOLITAN LAWYER: JUST SOME READINGS I HAVE ENJOYED LATELY

First, this blog replaces my previous blog, thecosmoplitanlawyerblogspot.com . Second, unlike that earlier blog, the present one is primarily meant as a record of my readings. It is not meant to suggest that others will be or should be interested in what I read. And third, in a sense, it is a public diary of one who is an alien in his own American culture. A person who feels at home just about anywhere, except in his birthplace . . . America.

Monday, January 21, 2013

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Joyce Carol Oates, Daddy Love: A Novel (New York: The Mysterious Press, 2013) ("[Y]ou could say there's a disadvantage to having had a personal catastrophe in your life. [] Being unaware of the degree to which you're an asshole, because people give you a free ride. [] The actual disadvantage is that you attribute your subsequent life--every mood, every downturn--to that catastrophe. You can't imagine an alternative life. There is only the one life. You have no perspective. This was true. This was sad, banal, quasi-profound, true. [] The perspective you lose is not knowing how different you life would be, otherwise. I mean your inner, essential life...." Id. at 243-244.).