Very nearly considered purchasing this book club novel. A lovely perambulation through the romantic relationship memories between two writers

• Published: 2017
• Completed: 10/04/2023
• Pages: 291

This book is a non fiction account of Bill Hayes’ relationship with the city of New York and his partner, the renowned Oliver Sacks.

I really enjoyed this book. Reading it felt like being in the intimate and privileged company of rarified writers, artists and thinkers. It is unabashedly erudite, albeit a bit pretentious at times.

The book does not feel like it has a plot. Plot implies constructed conflict then resolution. There is none of that here and very simply, you know as soon as the writer develops a relationship with a man almost forty years his senior, that the novel will of course, end in said partner’s death. This novel, reflecting on the journey to that moment, feels like a pleasant and meandering walk, picking up pretty memories like stones on a beach and examining the fragments without any pressure to connect one moment to the next.

Some of these fragments are interesting to read, not because they are original, but because the wording of the idea itself is pleasing. This is to be expected when the novel documents a relationship between two writers, like “Sylvia Plath married to Anne Sexton” (p259), whose worlds are words.

I do wish however, that Hayes’ had included some arguments or hardships beyond his partners’ deaths bookmarking the beginning and end of this novel. I understand this novel is probably meant as a celebration of his time together with Sacks, and as a result, Hayes only wanting romantically to remember the best parts. However, omitting all conflict, makes the portrayal of both him and Sacks incomplete. No relationship is without it’s share of downs, and one can assume Hayes and Sacks was no different as they did not live together for the most part. However, this may just be jealousy on my behalf!

At its core, this novel encourages us to slow down and savour life. This is evident in both the content and physical composition of the novel. The mixed use of journal entries, poems, photos and longer passages, together with physically uneven binding of the novel’s pages, are all designed to get the reader to reflect deeply on the writing.

Appreciate that for all of these above characteristics, that this novel could have been dreadfully boring or hard to read!

However, I spent many happy moments with this book. I read whole chapters aloud to my partner in bed, and at other times, would sit idly playing with my cat on my lap on reflection of a book passage. It is cliché but ultimately Hayes reminds us to be thankful for the simple things and to be “glad we’re all not dead” (p128).

Quotes

“Beautiful tumours” p43

“…part Dominican, part Vietnamese—island countries” p47

“You create the need which you fill, the hunger you sate” p54

“Are you conscious of your thoughts before language embodies them?” p88

“Reckon not upon long life: think every day the last, and live always beyond thy account. He that so often surviveth his Expectation lives many Lives, and will scarce complain of the shortness of his days. Time past is gone like a Shadow; make time to come present” Thomas Browne p126

“A good cry is like a car wash for the soul” p130

“…unsure of where my body ends and yours begins…” p193

“Let’s do more.” p251

“He looked like a corner piece of a jigsaw puzzle” p255

Questions & Thoughts

I hate American date format (mmddyyyy)

Makes me want to start journaling

Salmon and veggies and apples

Meal with Bjork (p112)

Older younger relationships (38 year gap, p127)

Personification of inanimate objects (p124)

Hypertrophies of physiology? p234

Typography

I normally hate irregularly bound books, but this together with the typography had purpose and flair. Very lovingly typeset with only a few minor quibbles where poems would have been better appreciated on facing pages (as opposed to over the page)

New Words

• Triboluminescence
• Nephrological
• Osmium
• Plangent
• Scotoma
• Recrudescence
• Prosopagnosia
• Homeostasis
• Galleys

Ratings

• Hayley: 7
• Kaye: 7
• Liz: 0 (really hated it)
• Sarah: 6
• Sally: 7
• Thành: 8

Restaurant

Chrysler Bar, Tonsley (because of the Chrysler building featuring in the novel)

Liz brought NY walking cards. Thành brought an apple to share