Noted: Engawa in Lisbon, writing a new story, a book about grief and birds
Hi friends,
Here are 5 things I took note of this week and thought were worth sharing:
Can you ever go back? Novelist Jonathan Lethem (The Fortress of Solitude) discusses on Time Sensitive how novel writing is a form of mining his “Brooklyness”, and is as much an art of imagination as it is of memory. He says, “I do see my work, increasingly, as a forensic reconstruction of moments’ lost things.” As we head into the holidays, I’m considering what I can mine and where I can reconstruct.
Lots of friends are heading to Lisbon in the next couple of months. Make sure to put Gulbenkian on your must-visit list. Japanese architect Kengo Kama’s renovation of the CAM (Centro de Arte Moderna) was inspired by Engawa, meaning not entirely inside or outside. The new space gives a greater sense of connection between the gardens and the building. It’s gorgeous. I’ve been spending more time there than ever before. The exhibits and programming are always top (Engawa, through mid-January).
A beautiful poem for the beautiful, liminal last days of autumn.
Several people suggested that I read “H is for Hawk” by Helen Macdonald after I shared my story of rescuing an injured eagle on our property. It’s the narrator’s personal journal of training a falcon, calculated and precise, interwoven with a story of deep grief from the unexpected death of her father. She finds herself in a world where nothing makes sense, the edges are blurry, and she pursues a type of madness to recover what was lost. In her sadness, she hopes that Mabel, her falcon, can go beyond what the eye can see and bring her father back to her. I struggle with the idea of keeping wild animals for sport, but it’s about so much more.
Between travel and living in a place with almost zero selection of books in English, I use my iPad for most of my reading. The Readwise app rounds up all my highlights and sends a random selection of them to me daily. The highlights are full of weird synergies between ideas and phrases from wildly different books and somehow it makes sense. Highly recommend.