Status Updates From Outline

9. Stories with an animal
Unlike the larger part of the book, that had me confused so much, because of all the hidden agenda‘s, purposes and manipulative messages of the people Faye (ah!) meets, this was a surprisingly accessible chapter and a very lovely read. Like how the workshop turns out to be more about storytelling than it is about writing

8. Wine with Elena and Melete
The beautiful Greek Helen, whose urge to confront is to fight off her fears. Not sure what Melete adds to the conversation, maybe a bit of middle ground. Both women strike me as composed and intelligent. At least I don’t get the feeling somebody is trying to convince the other or herself, and right away, the reading gets much more agreeable

…why bother to speak at all? Why say anything, if you can just take it back the next minute?

This is, more or less, what the novel has me thinking about: what is the reason to speak at all: to deceive, to just exchange, to create an impression, to look better? To inform?

First chapter that I really enjoy reading, actually.

7. Second boating trip with ‘the neighbour’, who in the end gets the rejection that was in the air from the get-go. The narrator explained she believes in passivity and not wanting anything at all, which, for me, would look quite different from an appointment to teach a writing workshop in Greece and meeting with friends and strangers. And even now, with something of an explanation I am still lost…

There was a great difference, I said, between the things I wanted and the things I could apparently have, and until I had finally and forever made my peace with that fact, I had decided to want nothing at all.

I am just so puzzled by why she keeps going up with her ‘neighbour’, whom she holds no particularly warm feelings for, as far as I can tell…

…a life with no story was not, in the end, a life that I could live .

Fascinating statement, coming from a man who talks a great deal to construct an image, but who doesn’t seem to have a purpose or point. Except maybe being on the hunt for a fourth wife.

And while we’re on the subject what do we think of a novel without a story?