Journal Entry 1 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Friday, July 01, 2005

Martha Cooley's The Archivist is one of my very favorite books, as you can tell from reading the journal entries here(1), here(2), here(3), and here(4). In fact, just in the last couple days I was searching for new used copies of The Archivist from other BookCrossers, from half.com, and from eBay when I came upon the existence of Thirty-Three Swoons. I was delighted. It's been seven years since Archivist: I didn't know if Cooley was going to turn out to be a one-hit wonder! (Not that I would have minded.)

Immediately I put Swoons on reserve at the library and wrote Cooley a new fan letter (I wrote last fall--no answer).

EDIT 12 Jul 2005: She replied! Check one of my Archivist postings for an excerpt.

But today I couldn't wait any longer. Besides, I feel that after so many used copies of Archivist I owed Cooley (and the local cool bookstore, Shaman Drum) my money. She's given me so much.

I also discovered a few days ago that Ms. Cooley is a lecturer at Boston University, just down the Charles River from my old haunts at Harvard College! Even more exciting for me, as it means maybe I can try to meet her on some visit back to the Boston area. I'd love to get her autograph for my permanent collection copy of Archivist, and now for Swoons, and even more I'd love to talk with her. Makes me wish I were still a student out there.

EDIT 12 Jul 2005: Ms. Cooley tells me she has accepted a post at Adelphi University teaching English starting this fall. She suggests I mail her my Archivist for an autograph, via her publisher, but I am skeptical of their delivery capabilities, since Ms. Cooley says she did not receive my earlier fan letter sent through Little, Brown.

So what, you might ask, is this copy of this book doing on BookCrossing? Well, I love most about BX the time-delayed virtual book club aspect, so I am going to be journaling this extensively. It will be even more important for a Cooley book, since as you can tell from my Archivist entries I need to share the experience of such intense novels. And I do want to loan this book out as often as I can. Possibly even this weekend, before I finish it. (I can get that library copy.) Later in the year, I may even start a bookring. Plus, I wanted to be the first to register a Swoons. (As of earlier today, no one else had.)

PM me if you would be interested in such a bookring!

Jinnayah 

Journal Entry 2 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Monday, July 11, 2005

Release Country: "Controlled Releases"
Release State: "A Bookring"
Release City: "Book Ring"
Release Crossing Zone: "US Post" OR "BookRing"

Journal Entry 3 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Friday, July 15, 2005

Cooley sure does love NYC. It's very sweet, in a way. Again, here, as in Archivist, a long walk through the city, retreading such familiar sites and smells, feeling at home.

I don't know the city. My dad, unclestrange, lives there now, but I've only visited five or six times. And I'm not into it. Too big and noisy and smelly for me. I have a good time when I visit, but I feel very much a stranger. Cooley lives in Boston now, but she must be a native New Yorker, I feel.

It's not a surprise--in fact, it could hardly be otherwise--but I am not enjoying Swoons as much as The Archivist. My dad says he almost always considers an author's first book better but the second better done. E.g. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age (okay, those aren't literally Stephenson's first works); or Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine and The Beet Queen. I can't make that distinction easily, or maybe I just have no hard and fast rule.

In this case, I am totally in thrall to Cooley's first novel, but I have to admit this one is not only very well crafted but also draws me in in a very measured, progressive way. My interest grows little by little, but measurably, unlike the overwhelming I felt almost immediately into The Archivist. It makes it easier to read slowly, and easier to digest. I feel Cooley is not demanding so much of me, but is nonetheless giving me a fair amount. Swoons is, after all, a novel that again and again meditates on the intricacies of fragrance, undertones and overtones and aftertastes. It makes sense for the story to sneak up on you, too.

I'm not sure I have accepted "the doppelganger's" presence yet. I reserve judgment on whether his intervention is called for. The two halves of the story do not necessarily seem linked in the way the Eliots' was to Matt, Judith, and Roberta. Interludes are risky ventures in a novel. They break the flow. They can break the spell. I am almost halfway through Swoons, and I still don't know how I feel about it in this case.

Which is another way of saying this novel will not be one of my favorites. I can be intrigued by it, no more than that.

Vis-a-vis the title: I conjecture at this point that there are eleven chapters, each with three components: dream, variation ;-), and interlude. Hence, thirty-three. We'll see... 

Journal Entry 4 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Wow, be careful with chapter 7. It's a doozy. 7 is a little past the midpoint, and is absolutely the emotional core of the novel. The dream sequence is not all that, but the variation and the interlude are both a succession of swift punches to the gut. In a good way :-)

I've been reading this book no more than a chapter per day, more often only two elements of a chapter. Today I read all of 8, which is shorter than average, and quite beautiful. I finally could accept fully the presence of Stuart. He did show himself a true friend.

Probably will be finishing within a few days, and then the loaning out to locals before the shipping off into a bookring proper starts! Yippee!

Jinnayah 

Journal Entry 5 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Thursday, July 21, 2005

I'd expected to finish the book today. The doppelganger made me think 9 was the last chapter. He tricked me. I probably will wait to read 10. I don't think I'll feel compelled.

It feels like most things are sewed up by now. No, not to full resolution, but I don't expect that from all books, and certainly not from Cooley's. The doppelganger's last comments suggest there will be a little more out-breath. I didn't like the ending to The Archivist--most people I know didn't--but I feel I trust the author this time around.

She has been a bit of a pill in all these eleventh-hour revelations, though. Is she being overdramatic? I'd like everyone else's take on that. I still adore Cooley's careful setting of scenes and motions: "'Danny,' I began, but before I could say more, she'd sandwiched the letter between her palms and was wagging its pages back and forth before her, as if to shake the truth out of them." So I'll forgive her a lot. Including convenience? I'm not sure. Danny's version of the story is extremely convenient. But created stories often are. For the sake of simplicity and enclosed power, they fold in upon themselves. 

Journal Entry 6 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Thursday, July 21, 2005

A comment on a particular plot point, which I am going to write in white so as not to spoil for future readers. If you want to read this, highlight the following section.

Jordan must have believed he was Danny's father, judging from the letter he wrote. Which means Camilla could have been right in the partiuclars of her sifting of the evidence, but for chance. Why did Cooley write in that action of blind chance?

The more I think about it, it does kind of make sense, despite the convenience, for someone else to be Danny's father. Yes, it would make more sense were it some stranger and not Camilla's husband. Still, this is a messy story (if carefully written): a plan as intricate as Eve's shouldn't come off flawlessly. 

Journal Entry 7 by jinnayah at BookRing in Book Ring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (7/27/2005 UTC) at BookRing in Book Ring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Released to dspeyer to start off the Bookring! 

Journal Entry 8 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Tuesday, August 16, 2005

dspeyer read the book, but is holding off posting. However, he gave the copy back to me, and I passed it on to PupJudge last weekend. 

Journal Entry 9 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Thursday, November 17, 2005

Passed on to motherloaf, who has the responsibility of getting the book out of the state next! 

Journal Entry 10 by jinnayah from Ann Arbor, Michigan USA on Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Recovered from epdowd and will be mailed to beckerbuns shortly. 

Journal Entry 11 by beckerbuns from San Jose, California USA on Monday, July 16, 2007

Got it! I will get to it right away... Nothing lined up before it.