Played out....

 A strange day----my one day off from the work that I do. Yet unable to make a complete plan---tired, yet not tired enough to simply remain in the apartment. Reading several books (Oh, how I love libraries!) all of interest yet none that I really need to keep me going. Do you want to know what they are"

Henry Roth---A Star Shines Over Mount Morris Park---growing up Jewish and poor in what is now Spanish Harlem--living with a mother and father who were married by arrangement in the "old country" and who now live in constant rage with one another yet unable to break the bond. This is the family that Roth's young protagonist grows up in and observes and tries to survive the incredible disharmony between the two. I love Roth's writing---his attempt at functioning under these family circumstances.

George Buchner---Danton's Death-a play written in the early nineteenth century about the downfall f Danton, the "hero" of the French Revolution. Quite a slog--a very sluggish translation but still hope to finish it soon.

Hari Kunzru---Blue Ruin, a novel--about as different from Roth's work as one could imagine. About a lost relationship---the narrator writes in a cold, deliberate style that is sometime arresting---I am moving through it slowly.

Shakespeare-Titus Andronicus---the next of his plays that I am re-evaluating. One of his earliest---could have been written by Marlowe? Possibly---anxious to look for phrases and images and ideas that link up with his later plays.

In addition to these four a play by a playwright of color that had a successful production post pandemic at one of the city's institutional theaters but has not been heard of since---have not begun it, and a novel by a female playwright that I have wanted to read for a long time, but having read the firsts few pages, not to sure that I want to continue. So there we are.

And so it goes---maybe, if I have the strength a movie later---time moves quickly we shall see.