reading reminds me...

[bix02138]

i happened by the harvard bookstore on my way to lunch (more about that some other time), and found a new book by peter cameron, someday this pain will be useful to you. i purchased it, an act of supreme faith since his last two books, andorra and the city of your final destination, were distinctly unsuccessful.

cameron has a quote at the head of the book (two, really, but i'm disregarding ovid for the time being), in which i found resonance.

when you long with all your heart for someone to love you, a madness grows that shakes all sense from the trees and the water and the earth. and nothing lives for you, except the long deep bitter want. and this is what everyone feels from birth to death.
—denton welch
journal, 8 may 1944, 11.15 p.m.

madness is a very good word for it.