Remember last month's Quote of the Month by Zadie Smith? Her character Samad feeling unfit to 'return'? The question of, when we return where do we return to?
I myself have returned - first 'returned' to my childhood's 'Heimat' and now back to my present 'thuis' and come across this month's quote in my notes. I like the idea of extending our focus: "She might call and call now for her own return." No need to search outside: Home is Where Your Heart Is! Eventually, it all lies inside oneself. Question solved - clear answer.
But then again: inside oneself?! Why then: "...inhabiting so many former selves with more conviction" which reminds me of: "These selves which we are built up of, one on top of the other, as plates are piled on a waiter's hand, [...]"!!! Sounds familiar? No, it is not from the philosophical book Who am I? And If So, How Many? by the German author Richard David Prichet - though the title sprang up immediately before my imaginative eye while reading the above sentence. Actually, it is a quote from the fantastic biography of Orlando written by Virginia Woolf transcending through four hundred years of history and from man to woman. Coincidently, this book is one which will be discussed in our last meeting of The English Book Club in June. I wonder how the participants will react to the idea of various 'selves'.So, 'to return' can mean a lot of things: to return to a place, to return to oneself, to return to this world after death...but I will leave it up to you to start a discussion with your friends and family. I won't bore you anymore with these contemplations instead, and will now give you some background information of this month's Quote of the Month's author:
Jayne Anne Phillips was born in Buckhannon, West Virginia, USA. Another (frequent) contributor to Granta's Magazine and winner of various prestigious literary prizes; additionally translated in various languages around the world. She is currently Professor of English and Founder / Director of the Rutgers-Newark Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing Program. The Atlantic magazine listed her program in 2007 as one of "Five Up-and-Coming" creative writing programs in the United States. Interesting detail: after graduation from University, Jayne went on a cross-country trip from West Virginia to California, taking on various jobs on her way. This trip shaped her writing with the focus on survivors of various struggles like in her novel, Machine Dreams, published in 1984: A chronicle of the Hampson family from the turn of the century to the Vietnam War. The Los Angeles Times praised her "stories that hover on the edge of poetry". Slow-motion literature, I would call it, with an eye to details that are usually dropped in fiction. She was also praised by Nadine Gordimer as "the best short story writer since Eudora Welty". MotherKind, Jayne's third novel, was one of the books we discussed at The English Book Club in 2010 while focusing on the theme: "Common Ground? The American Family Novel". To some readers complete boredom to others a revelation. It was a very lively discussion!