I’m at Schiphol.

I started your Book of Mev again and read it in about 7 hours.

After p. 251, I cried through nearly every page.

p. 303 nearly killed me.

At the wake, p. 324, I couldn’t continue for awhile because I was crying so hard on the plane.
The poor young Greek couple sitting next to me. They were really dysfunctional, nevertheless trying to make out half the time, with this weeping shaking person next to them.


I don’t really know what to say. There are no words in English, only in Japanese. But from p. 324–kurushindeta.

I hope that you and Mev had a chance to listen to Richard Strauss’ Last Four Songs before she died.
I guess we both stayed at Berrigan’s Block Island cottage.

We overlapped at one SOA march.

Mahler 6 was my first Mahler symphony. It is considered the most enigmatic and opaque. I recommend the Houston Symphony recording with Christoph Eschenbach as mastermind madman.
I love Bourdieu and love Wacquant more.

My God, what a crucible you and Mev went through. Subarashi.

I have to dry up my face before S. gets here. He says I always cry. I cry every time I see that fool. I think he’d be perturbed if he saw me crying BEFORE we had some screwed up conversation about parents. My demented sweet teacher.

–Clara Takarabe is a writer, teacher, and musician who lives in Hyde Park, Chicago.