Things Jelani and I Talk About

A few months ago, Rebecca Makkai gave a reading on campus as part of the English department's Visiting Writer Series. The selections she read to us were very good, and her responses during the Q&A session were really interesting (her characters were so thoroughly three dimensional, as it seemed from the snippets she read to us, and good character development is something I really admire).

As usual during these sorts of events, I sat with my good friend, Jelani*. Every once and awhile, he will lean over to tell me something about whatever it is we're watching or listening to, or something he finds interesting. During Rebecca Makkai's reading, Jelani made a noise of recognition. I looked at him, curious. He paused, and I offered my notebook to him.**

Humbert is the name of the, uh, main character in Lolita, he wrote along the long side of the page.

Ah. Well. I responded. A minute or so went by, and then I added, I need to read that book. I haven't yet. 

make sure it's the annotated version. the footnotes really enhance the experience.

In a good way or bad way?

very very good. you will need the novel in your right hand, a dictionary in your left in order to make it through that book, btw

Coolbeans. Noted. Will do. 

it's perversely one of the best books ever written. 

Then, later, when Makkai confirmed that she slipped many literary allusions, including Humber from Lolita, in to her book, The Borrower, I gave him a nudge, and pushed my notebook over toward him.

Yay you! 


*He leaves bits of brilliance and intellectualism on The Hype Weekly, and bleeds genius and, on occasion, whimsy, on his personal blog. I also owe him about a billion Poetry Nights at Auntie Mae's. I should probably get on that.

**We have had a lot of conversations over the years, and while most are verbal, there have been a few that have taken place on paper.