Monday Scramble: Central
 New at Portico: Well over a year ago, I read one of the greatest novels that I have ever encountered, Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland. I was hugely impressed, but I was also in love — with the result that my response was short-circuited. I might have managed to squeak out a word or two if I hadn’t also been convinced that most of the reviews, even when they were favorable (and most of them were), were wildly off.
I read the novel again at Thanksgiving, and then again after Christmas. I took lots of notes, but my paralysing intimidation only increased. The paperback edition came out; President Obama was said to be reading it; sales spiked. Good for Joseph O’Neill! But what about me? Determined to say something at Portico, iI ferreted through my notes bowl and found a fragment that seemed publishable. It’s more a first word on the novel than a last word, but it’s up, and I’m not unhappy with it. I argue that Netherland is a novel about wistfulness, and I argue also that wistfulness is the polar opposite of nostalgia. These are ideas that I contracted from reading Netherland several times.
The week before last, I didn’t get round to writing up the New Yorker story, and this left me with two jobs. I took care of both of them, but not without a lot of revision. The page on Joshua Ferris’s “The Valetudinarian” had to be rewritten from scratch, and “War Dances,” by Sherman Alexie, threatened to be alien corn.
This week’s movie was, of course, Julie and Julia. The movie would probably have been heaven anyway, but more like paradise lost, because I’d have had to explain to Kathleen later. Under normal Friday-movie circumstances, that is. But Kathleen was determined to see the movie with me, so it was just plain paradise.
Last and least: this week’s Book Review review.