ALNILAM

I almost blew it.

Had a book called ALNILAM, by James Dickey in my hand at The Book Depot a while back. Big, fat 600 page hardcover book. James Dickey wrote Deliverance, just so you know who he is. More on him later.

I hesitated when I first picked the book up. It is unusual in its construction. The story involves a fifty year old man who has recently gone blind because of diabetes, which he's dealing with as best he can. His son just died in a plane crash as he was training to fly during WWII, and his Dad is trying to find out what happened.

Many parts of the book are written in two columns - the left side of the page, in bold letters, is written from the perspective of the blind man. The right side from the perspective of the people and situations he is in. So you have a blind man's perspective versus the perspective of people who can see.

As I walked around Old Book Depot Number Six that day, I kept thinking about this fat book in my hands, wondering if I would have the patience to read in such an odd way. At one point I put the book back on the shelf.

Ultimately I bought it. Good move.

Started reading it yesterday. So much emotion, the writing is insightful, inspiring, perceptive, sensitive - spectacular. And the two column thing is amazing. It's odd because sometimes one column will run on to the next page, so you read that and then have to turn the page back to read the other column. No bother at all. Thank god I picked this book up - it is feeding my soul gourmet food and making me feel so good. I never know what is going to save me.

Good writing strips away all my hatreds - temporarily - which is about the best I can hope for right now.

James Dickey wrote poetry as well as fiction. He was appointed the 18th United States Poet Laureate in 1966. He quit his teaching job in 1956 at the University of Florida, rather than apologize for reading a "controversial" poem to a women's society. He became a copywriter for ad agencies selling Coca-Cola and Lay's potato chips, and writing poetry in his free time. As he put it "I was selling my soul to the devil all day.................and trying to buy it back at night."

He was a very successful poet.

Deliverance was Dickey's first novel and a huge success for him, published in 1970, made into a movie in 1972.

Eventually, celebrity went to his head, his writing suffered, he became a raging alcoholic, and died in 1997 at the age of 73.

Interesting guy.