The Exquisite Wait is Over

Mr. Robert Gray, the genius behind the delightful and informative Fresh Eyes: A Bookseller's Journal has made my day. It is through his blog that I now know that Martha Cooley's long-awaited 2nd novel, entitled Thirty-Three Swoons, will be available this May.

As a kid, and as a teenager, if I read a book by an author that really impressed me, I was bound and determined to then read every single work that I could find by said author. I used this technique with such writers as Walter R. Brooks, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Margaret Laurence, Robertson Davies, Douglas Adams, George MacDonald Fraser, and Anthony Burgess to name a few. I wasn't always happy with everthing these authors wrote (Burgess pumped out a lot of trash, in my opinion), but I'll never forget that feeling of excitement I experienced when learning that one of these treasured authors had just written a new book (the experience of finding out about and reading Robertson Davies' The Rebel Angels was one of the high points of my teenage years. Egads. What does that say about me?)

Sadly, I don't experience that excitement and delight too often as an adult. The last time I recall that feeling was when Mordecai Richler published Barney's Version (Oh, and he did not disappoint. His best book, as far as I am concerned. I went to a wonderful reading after the book was published, where he was being interviewed by Peter Gzowski; an unforgettable evening rich in wit, smoke and curmogeonly antics).

I'm blathering now. Ok, back to Ms. Cooley. So. When I discovered and read her first book, The Archivist, I practically fell in love with the woman. How can any human write so beautifully, with such delicate insight? My heart ached after reading her book. And it ached for a long time, as I waited in anticipation for her 2nd masterpiece.

And so it's coming soon. Just knowing it's out there gets me all giddy, like a silly teenager waiting, not for some dumb date, but for some wonderful novel to sweep me off my feet (there's that books and men thing again! Perhaps I have issues?)

Well, Mr. Gray has written a lovely review of Ms. Cooley's new book (scroll down to 'Galley Watch' on his site), which after reading it, just gets me even more giddy. Here is a snippet of his review:

Exquisite is the word that occurred to me again and again as I read Cooley's second novel (after The Archivist). Exquisitely conceived and exquisitely written, filled with exquisitely drawn characters and exquisitely imagined conflicts, Thirty-Three Swoons explores the complexity of human relationships by blending disparate elements -- scent, memory, family, specters -- and presenting a world where our comfortable border between life and death is routinely blurred.

And so, the exquisite wait is almost over, soon to be supplanted by the exquisite reading experience.

Comments

[Scully]

Thank you for the recommendation. I'm going to get the Archivist and wait, like you, for thirty-three swoons.

There's something delicious about waiting for a new book. Knowing that somewhere out there are pages full of another story that I'm dying to be a part of.

I like all your choices as a teenager (except Laurence - I still don't get the appeal) and I relate to wanting to read the collected works of an author. Sometimes it can be disappointing, other times each subsequent book gets better and better.

[iliana]

I really liked The Archivist so I'm definitely looking forward to this one.

[bookdwarf]

Ugh, I really want to read the new Cooley now (I am lucky enough to have the galley on my desk), but I know I should read The Archivist first. Thanks for the recommendations.
I love hearing that my favorite authors have new books coming. I almost swooned when I read about Umberto Eco's Baudolino a few years ago. I am not a swooner by nature. That's how nerdily excited I get.

[radmama]

I really need to come by more often. Rebel Angels is also a highlight of my teen years. I have done the same sort of immersion in newly beloved authours {many of the same ones as you-- right down to some of L.M.M.'s more obscure books}so many times. The summer that I was leaving my husband I read all the Jane Austen that I could find. Better than therapy.