I fall in love with books all the time. I remember periods of my life this way – like “what’s-his-name left me when I was reading Mrs. Dalloway” or “I got my first bra during the winter when I read all the Chronicles of Narnia.” The most recent book that I loved was the one that I just finished reading – Away by Amy Bloom. It’s about a Belarusian Jewish immigrant to the U.S. in the mid 1920’s who, through a series of events, travels across the country searching for her daughter.
Every single thing I’ve read by Amy Bloom has gotten into my guts. I think she is amazing. I went through a series of break ups after each of which I re-read Love Invents Us. Amy Bloom totally gets heartache and perseverance and the god-damned difficulty and absurdity and absolute beauty of human relationships.
As a side note, I was lucky enough to meet Amy Bloom very briefly in Provincetown one summer when she told me I had the best style of all the students at the Fine Arts Work Center. I swear she said this.
See also: An Oral History of Lorelei Lee
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