I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BAND OF HORSES-Live on KEXP , April 13, 2006 (2006).  

Band of Horses played KEXP in 2006.  They had been around since 2004 but their debut came out in 2006.  Since they are a Seattle band, they are treated as yet another Seattle band, which is kind of funny as they would be huge not long after this release (okay technically in 2007).  This show takes place about a month after the debut album came out (although the DJ says they’ve been playing them for a while).

I did not know that many of them were in a band called Carissa’s Weird (nor had I heard of that band), but thanks to the KEXP DJ for bringing that up.  I also found out that “Wicked Gil” is about baseball player Gil Meche.  The band sounds great–not quite as polished as on record, which is to be expected of course, but the vocals all sound great and the band is very tight.  They also play “Part One,” “The Great Salt Lake” and “The Funeral.”

It’s fun to hear a band before they became famous.

[READ: September 3, 2012] “Amundsen”

I read this story a day or two before I got laid off.  Unsurprisingly I didn’t feel like posting about it then.  But now it’s time.

This story is  about a young woman, Vivian Hyde, who is to be the new teacher at a rural santitorium.  She has traveled from Toronto to work at the ward where the girls have TB.  She has a B.A. and wants to work on her M.A, but she thought she’d earn some money for a time, first.  The story is set during the war, and the nurses are doing their wartime duty.

The first girl she meets, Mary, is the daughter of one of the employees who lives there.  She doesn’t have TB and does not participate in the studies that the TB girls do.  Vivian likes her but the headmaster, Dr. Fox, scolds the girls and sends her away so that Vivian can get settled in.

Munro is wonderful with details, like when the doctor asks is he knows anything about  tuberculosis:

“Well I’ve read–“

“I know, I know. You’ve read The Magic Mountain.”

[This is novel by Thomas Mann from 1924 that dealt with TB.  I love how Vivian does not respond to his comment one  way or the other].

Typically the students would not be pushed very hard–they should not get excited.  But Miss Hyde treated the girls as if they were in a real classroom, which seemed to excite them somewhat.  Dr Fox warned about stressing the girls out but otherwise seemed pleased with her work.  So he invites her to his house for dinner so they can talk.  He arranges a nice dinner for her and hey have an only slightly awkward time in his book-filled apartment.  After dinner the small town (and especially the school) is abuzz with their rendezvous.  But he seems to be sincere and invites her back again.

There is a slight hiccup in things when Mary shows up at  the doctor’s house on their second date.  Mary had invited Miss Hyde to watch her perform in the Valentine’s Day play, but Miss Hyde couldn’t go because of the date.  Mary begins to do her part for them both. At first they find it amusing, but after a few songs the doctor is angered by Mary’s rudeness and drives her home.  This leaves Vivian alone in his apartment.  She cleans up and waits for him to come home, unsure what to say.

And I love this when he returns:

He did not expect me to say anything.  He took me to bed.   Had this been in the cards all along, or was it as much of a surprise to him as it was to me.  My state of virginity  at least, did not appear to be unexpected–he provided a towel, as well as a condom–and he persisted, going as easily as he could. My passion was the surprise, to us both.

“I do intend to marry you,” he sad.

And the next section opens,

“So it was settled.”

The rest of the story shows us the doctor’s expectations and how Vivian deals with them.  He is a practical man, with no grand desires or wants  He asks for simplicity in their engagement and  their actual marriage, which is to be performed at a simple ceremony in a town far from Amundsen.  When they arrive there she also learns that the doctor does not want a minister to officiate.  The fact that all of this happens so quickly and matter of factly, without her parents involvement is mind blowing and yet, if Munro is to be believed, not atypcial.

And then the end comes quickly.

I was completely engaged by this story.  As I have said many times, Munro writes such lovely sentences, her reality is  absolute  and truthful.  Everything she talks about is alien and weird and at once utterly recognizable.   I love that her stories are so simple .  Who would have guessed I would be such a realist?