In the season finale of “Lost,” the character Desmond says he carries around Charles Dickens’ “Our Mutual Friend” because he wants that to be the last book he reads before dying. An intriguing question. What book would you save for last? We asked three Tempo writers, and here is what they told us.
“Pale Fire,” by Vladimir Nabokov. I was unhorsed in my first sally at this novel many years ago. It has a dual structure: the final poem by Charles Shade, a Robert Frost-like figure; and the long and loony commentary on the poem that follows by Shade’s neighbor Charles Kinbote, formerly of the Kingdom of Zembla. But did the same character write both parts? Is Kinbote really the king of Zembla or is he a figment of a third character’s imagination? Had I taken more care with the text and paid more respect to Nabokov’s intelligence, perhaps I might have had a clue. Maybe I will go out with the answer.
— Charles Storch
“Della Robbia: A Family of Artists” by Fiamma Domestici. I read this obscure art book when I was in the hospital awaiting cancer surgery about 10 years ago. With my anxiety ratcheted up into overdrive, I was in no shape to pay attention to the characters of a novel or a historian’s account of some ancient battle. Instead, I slowly turned the glossy pages of this work, marveling at the colorful glazed terra cotta sculptures that various members of the Della Robbia family executed in the 15th and 16th Centuries. Awaiting a leap into the unknown of the operating room, I found a kind of tranquility in the beautiful, serene, delightful art of these Italian masters. Awaiting a leap into the darker, scarier unknown of death, I think I’d like to look at this book again.
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— Patrick T. Reardon
“Anatomy of Melancholy” by Robert Burton. How better to cheat death than to keep the Dark One idling in the parlor while you finish the 1,000-plus pages of this brilliant, exasperating literary pastiche? First published in 1621, and added on to at least five times in Burton’s lifetime, this is a wild ride of Latin quotations, impenetrable charts, copious borrowings from sources far and wide, and complex prescriptions for living. Since being introduced to it in college, I’ve read scraps and tatters here and there, now and again, secretly awaiting the opportunity (and motivation) to go back to it with an undistracted eye. A handsome new edition published in 2001 now graces my bookshelf, ready to call my bluff when the end appears near.
Julia Keller
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What would your last book be? Tell us at: [email protected]. Or mail us at Tempo, baiduhai, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. Please include your name and hometown