Arnon Grunberg's Blog, page 478

A little nuts

Novel

Charles Simic on the site of the NY Review of Books:
“When my mother was very old and in a nursing home, she surprised me one day toward the end of her life by asking me if I still wrote poetry. When I blurted out that I still do, she stared at me with incomprehension. I had to repeat what I said, till she sighed and shook her head, probably thinking to herself this son of mine has always been a little nuts. Now that I’m in my seventies, I’m asked that question now and then by people who don’t know me well.”

(Read the complete article here.)

My mother never asks me if I still write novels. But she does insist frequently that I should go on a vacation.

Spritz

40

Last night, a friend of mine celebrated her 40th birthday at Berghof Fetz.

Unfortunately, I drank a bit too much “Aperol Spritz”. (Click here for more info on Aperol Spritz.)

I woke up with a hangover and melancholia.

Bucket

Dirty

“I’d like to buy 40 roses,” I said to the flower seller, who happened to be a man in his sixties. It was a warm day; the city center of Bregenz was rather empty.
The flower seller gave me a dirty look. “I don’t have 40 roses anymore,” he answered.
“Then make it 20,” I suggested.
He tried to sell me 19 roses, although there we clearly at least seven roses left in the bucket.
“Could you make it twenty, please?” I asked.
Hesitantly he took another rose out of the bucket.