I’ve been deep into my own writing; research for the latest piece includes a 1932 Army cooking guide, a history of Civil War military food, and Paul Dickson’s 1978 book, “Chow: A Cook’s Tour of Military Food,” not the best writing but served up with love, detail, and plenty of photographs.
However, last week for my MFA lit class I had the joy of reading Mary McCarthy’s “Artists in Uniform,” where she is at her spiciest, wittiest, and most honest. The student introducing her essay pointed out how much McCarthy handles through dialog, external and internal:
“‘You’re not Jewish, are you?’ ‘No,’ I said quickly. … ‘But I might have been,’ I stammered. … I recognized, too late, that I was strangely reducing the whole matter to a question of etiquette …”
Yes, someday, I should read Anna Karenina. But I think this summer I’ll put McCarthy on my list of Craft I Must Study Very Carefully (along with the back issues of Vanity Fair I have been saving). She seems as fresh as if I were reading her on today’s Salon.com.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Sophie Gets a Blog - 2007
- A podcast for all you biblio-information-fanatics - 2007
- Michael Porter and Men in Skirts - 2006
