Status Updates From Snapshots (The Margellos Wo...

A book, said Paul Valéry, helps us not to think, and that is what, deep in our hearts, each of us wants most fervently.

But the heart is small-minded, and the thousands of everyday impediments – leaky dishwashers, plumbers who don’t show up, keys that can’t be found, noisy neighbours – have a greater effect on one’s mood than a morning prayer, a tragic or comforting event in a war zone, the unexpected discovery of a great poem, or an hour of lovemaking, which isn’t enough to dispel the grousing that resumes soon after that hour.