chimamanda adichie//ceiling

8/02/2010

on my lunch break today, i read chimamanda's delicious new short story, "ceiling," in the summer issue of granta. i took too long on break, so i didn't have time to copy down an excerpt for you. it's only available in print, so forgive the disappointment if you visited the link. i will have to pop by mcnally jackson again this week and excerpt it for you. i wish i could also scan the image facing the story of a woman standing like an amazon over an entire city--her right foot in one neighborhood, and the left in another. but, sadly, i can't afford granta.

"ceiling" is about a man who marries and then realizes he is no longer in love with his wife or his life, the revelation brought on by an email from a former girlfriend. there's something refreshingly transgressive about stories with africans on blackberrys. i am definitely sold.

this topic, about falling out of love with one's life, keeps popping up for me, first in a short story by one of my writing workshop colleagues, and then in the film revolutionary road, that i finally saw last night. i suppose it is only because i am not happy with my life either--stuck in this job, trying to figure out what's next.

if only these stories also came with answers. --AL.

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3 comments

  1. I so love revolutionary road, it resonates too damn well considering it's not 1950 and I don't live in white suburbian Connecticut. And that's a bit of a problem I think.
    And I shunned new Granta just the other day cause of the price tag.
    Sigh.

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  2. @ms afropolitan: i'm grateful to hear that i'm not alone! revolutionary road was indeed like watching my own life...always thought i was special and above complacency, but it seems to have lulled me to sleep here in NYC. lately i've been daydreaming about paris and london and tangiers, i even read chichi's story sitting in the travel section of the bookstore! lol. and to think you're on the other side of the grass and feeling no greener. ;)

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  3. "... time to copy down an excerpt for you." "... I will have to pop by mcnally jackson again this week and excerpt it for you."

    Alligator Legs, I know you keep this blog because you love to. But I couldn't, as a reader, help feeling special reading about you doing stuff for us. It means something to me, at least. THANK YOU!!!

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