Author Reading: Annie Proulx

Yesterday Tracy and I met at 6 pm at our favorite sushi place (Sushi Boy across from the English movie theater on Eschenheimer Landstrasse) where we indulged in their otherworldly sushi (seriously, it is like crack sushi). Then we went to Annie Proulx's reading at the Stadbuecherei (public library). She read from a new short story about a guy in a retirement home in Wyoming (didn't catch the title) for about 50 minutes, but didn't finish the whole story. It was quite entertaining as she does different voices for the characters and the story was infused with a lot of humor.

Afterwards she answered a few questions. One guy said he just had to know what happened to Jack Twist (in Brokeback Mountain) because it didn't think it was clear enough. Her answer: "Readers have to contribute a certain amount to the story", followed by silence. She also said she begins stories by thinking about place - that characters and character motivations are all dictated by place. She claims she never gets inspiration for characters from real people that she's known, which Tracy finds impossible to believe.

We both got our copies of Close Range and Other Stories (with Brokeback Mountain) signed and then headed home.

Emmy rushed out the door and ran up the stairs when I got home. She was so wild that she lost her footing on the banister and fell about 9 feet. I was so freaked out that she was seriously hurt. But she limped for like 5 steps and then was back to her old self. I read that cats bones are only a bit less flexible than rubber and can survive falls from 10 stories. But I will probably take her to the vet Monday to be on the safe side.