spruced by marlene

a week in fashion

By Marlene | Published: 19. November 2011

This week, I cheered for the knitting Grannys behind Danish high fashion, got very excited by the news that J.Crew now ship to Germany (and, in fact, anywhere else in the world), admired Sandra’s mom in her blue velvet pants and dreamt about having tea with Karl Lagerfeld.

But what I mostly did was fall in love all over again.

About seven years ago when I was on holiday, I picked up a book called “Middlesex” by Jeffrey Eugenides from the hotel book exchange. I can’t remember what made me choose it, but I don’t think I got up from the sun lounger for the rest of the holiday, it was that wonderful. Sad and wise and warm and stupendously well-written. Even if that makes me sound like the backs of American novels that always tell you how great a book is, never what it’s actually about. “Middlesex” is about: a hermaphrodite’s coming-of-age. It’s also about Greek immigrants, the automobile industry, the modern history of the United States and Berlin after the Wall came down. And, really, about anyone with a family, who has ever loved and lost.

I must’ve read “Middlesex” four or five more times since I first picked it up. Partly, because it took Jeffrey Eugenides this long to write his next novel. I think I actually yelped when I finally saw in a bookstore last week. It’s called “The Marriage Plot” and tells the story of a girl putting, well, the plot of great English novels to test in her own life. I’m sure it’s about much more than that, but I’m only 40 pages in, because as much as I want to lock myself in a room and read the whole thing in a day, I’m trying to pace myself. It will end eventually and I don’t know how I will be able to wait that long again for him to write his next book.

Then again, he can take as long as he bloody likes to write when it results in sentences like this one: “Her hair was expensively set into a smooth dome, like a band shell for the presentation of that long-running act, her face.”

Even if that sentence doesn’t do for you what it does for me, there are hundreds of other sentences in there worth underlining. So: buy the book. And then read “Middlesex”. And then “The Virgin Suicides”, which is also by him and also very good.

Have a great weekend! I’m going to read now.

This entry was posted in a week in fashion, fashion and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback Trackback URL.

5 Comments

  1. lis
    Posted 19. November 2011 at 17:04 | Permalink

    liebe marlene, das kommt mir ja alles so bekannt vor … das drama, ein so tolles buch zu ende gelesen zu haben und die anschließende frage: was nu? aber auch das juchzen angesichts der world-wide-shipping-news aus dem hause j.crew. yes 🙂 schönes weekend dir, vor allem aber: happy reading! best, lis

    • Marlene
      Posted 20. November 2011 at 12:40 | Permalink

      Jetzt wissen wir auch, wo dieses Jahr die Weihnachtsgeschenke herkommen, nicht? Schon, damit sich die Versandkosten lohnen, ähem. Ich habe mir eine Buchdiät verordnet: fünf Seiten pro Tag! Aber das hat schon beim letzten Buch nicht funktioniert. A visit from the goon squad. Hatte ich in einer Woche durch. Noch ein gutes Weihnachtsgeschenk übrigens. Sind ja nur noch fünf Wochen. Oh Gott! x

      • lis
        Posted 20. November 2011 at 19:10 | Permalink

        Uh 5 Seiten / Tag ist ja schon nahe am Fasten. Sportliches Vorhaben also, Respekt! Die Tragik der Geschichte: Auslesen auf Raten. Weil das Ende, es kommt bestimmt … Bisschen wie beim Serienkucken. Was mich an ein anderes Tragikum erinnert: Mad Men Staffel 5, where art thou? Vor Weihnachten wird det wohl nüscht mehr. 5 Wochen?! Au Mann. Best, Lis
        PS an James: Viele begeisterte Reaktionen angesichts meiner so perfekten Clutches! Sogar mein Vater, treuer Urban-Notes-Leser aus der Ferne, war ganz aus dem Häuschen. Na und das will was heißen …

        • Marlene
          Posted 21. November 2011 at 15:26 | Permalink

          Ich hab gehört, die nächste Staffel soll im März kommen. Und was macht man bis dahin? Noch mal My So-Called Life angucken vielleicht. Was GANZ anderes, aber so, so gut. Unbekannterweise viele Grüße von James an deinen Papa. Der Mann hat Geschmack!

          • lis
            Posted 21. November 2011 at 17:02 | Permalink

            Jordan Catalano! Flanellhemden! Und eine so süße Claire Danes. Jaja …

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *