"What are you working on?
A biography of John Cheever. Happily I’d transcribed the last bit of research onto my laptop about a week before our house in New Orleans was flooded by Katrina. When I returned, a month or so later, my copy of Cheever’s original (unpublished, unabridged) journal was four linear feet of solid mold - about four million moldy words in all. My last interview for the book (maybe two weeks before Katrina) was with Cheever’s oncologist, a man of spiritual leanings who told me that Cheever had advised him, from beyond the grave, to cooperate. True story. So I’ve felt pretty good about the book since then."If a part of my soul didn't just die, at least a part of my liver did in honor of Cheever's terribly alcoholic life. Ugh. To own a copy of Cheever's original journal... and then have it completely ruined.
I sure do spend a lot of time on NYtimes.com, don't I?
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