“Writing is a kind of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in the human situation.”
So wrote Graham Greene.
I’ve been thinking about the next book. Well, actually, more than thinking. Writing has begun or, to be more accurate, re-begun.
After Grosse Fugue was complete (or so I thought), I started another novel. With all the research demanded by the first one, I wanted to try something that required little or no background reading and could be written rather more seamlessly.
I won’t talk about the idea just yet; it’s all a bit early. What’s been interesting is that I’ve now picked it up again and been rather productive.
Which is where Graham Greene comes in.
My wife was recently diagnosed with a major health issue. It could be a game-changer. Worry suddenly clouds the horizon. But writing affords a refuge. Fernando Pessoa wrote ‘I read and am liberated’. For me, that goes for writing too.
When the muse and fingers work in perfect harmony and the words flow, one can be free from fear, free, in fact, from everything. There’s a passage in Grosse Fugue where Reuben Mendel immerses himself so deeply into music that he can, for the moment, suppress his demons.
I’m not sure I really understood what that meant.
Until now.
I’ve been thinking about the next book. Well, actually, more than thinking. Writing has begun or, to be more accurate, re-begun.
After Grosse Fugue was complete (or so I thought), I started another novel. With all the research demanded by the first one, I wanted to try something that required little or no background reading and could be written rather more seamlessly.
I won’t talk about the idea just yet; it’s all a bit early. What’s been interesting is that I’ve now picked it up again and been rather productive.
Which is where Graham Greene comes in.
My wife was recently diagnosed with a major health issue. It could be a game-changer. Worry suddenly clouds the horizon. But writing affords a refuge. Fernando Pessoa wrote ‘I read and am liberated’. For me, that goes for writing too.
When the muse and fingers work in perfect harmony and the words flow, one can be free from fear, free, in fact, from everything. There’s a passage in Grosse Fugue where Reuben Mendel immerses himself so deeply into music that he can, for the moment, suppress his demons.
I’m not sure I really understood what that meant.
Until now.
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