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Benefits
Anyone interested in friends with benefits should read Joyce Wadler’s article about Giulia Melucci in today’s Times.
Ms. Melucci is the author of “I loved, I lost, I Made Spaghetti.” Joyce Wadler describes Ms. Melucci as “perpetually single”.
Here’s one of my favorite paragraphs of this article: ‘When the same writer says he wants only to be friends, Ms. Melucci makes him an offer that not even a newly dead man could refuse: “If we’re friends, why can’t we have sex?”
While not a sound recipe for romance, this does result in “Pear Cake for Friends With Benefits,” which Ms. Melucci whips up for the writer after sex, and which sounds awfully good.
Ms. Melucci also falls hard for a Scottish writer she calls Lachlan, who has not published a novel in 10 years and eagerly accepts her offer to get him an agent, as well as her home cooking and the use of her apartment. Unlike most of the men in her life, he occasionally cooks and once, when he overcooks the pasta, he apologizes.
“It would be the only time he took responsibility for a limp noodle,” Ms. Melucci writes.’
This paragraph is pretty good too: ‘“It’s amazing a man could sleep in a bed with a woman for three months and show no interest,” says Ms. Melucci, who was working as a publicist for Harper’s Magazine at the time. “But he came on like a house afire. That first night, wow, it was amazing, wherever he put me I was going. It was wild! The next night he called and said, ‘Let’s mess up the sheets again.’ I brought him a copy of Harper’s Magazine. I took off my clothes. He actually sat there with me and read Harper’s for a while.”
That must have been some article. Could she recall what it was about? It would make some writer’s day.
“Can’t remember,” Ms. Melucci says. “You could say Lewis Lapham. That would make him happy. He’s a good guy.”
What did she hope to accomplish by cooking wonderful dishes for these jerks?
“I thought it would make them love me,” she says. “You really ultimately hope it’s going to get you that love we all want.”’
The moral of this story: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
On Melucci
In a Q&A with USA Today she once stated:"But what can I do? Love hasn't worked out for me. Publishing has. You gotta go with what works. "
That leaves me wondering about what an author is to do if publishing fails as well.
Arnon
Sounds very good.There is a kind of your style in it.
Maybe some will end up in the gutter, some will awake in a dream (see for example http://tiny.cc/Ggh5n) and some will dwell as a commenter.
http://tiny.cc/OChm5
Bernard
We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.arnon
good piece.I just got your Jewish messiah, its pure pleasue to read it, sir! (on balcony)
I feel sorry I cant see your blog regulary, I have just moved to another appartement, and I dont have an internet yet- But I do have a bath(wanna picture?) so I am really happy lady now.
looking forward seeing you in Prague.
Kasimir
Lieve Arnon,Al een poos ben ik op zoek naar 'De Jiddische mamma' van Seligmann en 'Ik zal jullie over Esther vertellen' van Marek Hlasko.
Wil ze zo graag in het nederlands lezen...
Als jij zegt dat ze niet meer te krijgen zijn, leg ik me daarbij neer.
Groet,
Saskia van der Jagt
Saskia
Forgive me for answering:'Ik zal jullie over Esther vertellen' is collected in the book Fear Defeats Everything. For more info: http://www.arnongrunberg.com/work/115.
Which shouldn't be very hard to find.
De Jiddische Mamme: a bookshop sells it at www.antiqbook.com for 12 euros and 50 cents, which is a good price.
This book can also be found in the bigger libraries. I remember seeing it in The Hague for example.
Johannes
Thanks!To Bernard
Do you suspect me of being such a commentator?Sorry, but I am mostly commenting around and thinking about myself.
Do you suspect yourself? (I do but, no moral judgment involved – our life is a river, we stare at the past, in which the current flows)
To Bernard
Hopefully I'll be able to answer your question in three months.That is all I can say at the moment. If curiosity would get the better half of you, I advise you to repeat your question in three months time.
@Pjötr
; -)I was too short, I sunderstand now at the very moment, I tried to say "I do suspect MYSELF etcetera "- I did not suspect you etcitera . Words easely lead to misunderstandings. Sorry I did not meant to be rude.
