Welcome to Litsy!

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan!

Looking back on your own life is more than a mere reflection. As you age, it is an opportunity to question major milestones and events.

At forty-five, I feel grateful almost daily to be the adult I wished I could be when I was seventeen. I work on my arm strength...At the same time, almost daily, I lose battles with the seventeen-year-old who's still inside me...I binge on TV, I make sweeping moral judgments...I drink martinis on a Tuesday night, I stare at beer-commercial cleavage...I feel the urge to key Range Rovers and slash their tires; I pretend I'm never going to die.

I know that Franzen has become the Coldplay of novelists i.e., the one all the cool people roll their eyes over and work hard to disdain, but he's never let me down yet and as long as he keeps writing, I'll probably keep reading.