Has anyone tried this book by Padgett Powell? Why is it so compelling? Why am I interested in all these questions about myself - or the fictional subject of all the questions - that I half answer in my head?
A couple of extracts at random: Wouldn't it be sport and fun to carry around a riding crop and whip things with it? Do you think of yourself as a quitter, and, if you do, was there a time when you did not think you were a quitter? .....Have you ever maintained a swimming pool? Have you ever been bitten by a rabbit?
One after another, strange ideas and images pop into my head. I remember handling a child's rabbit when I was a little girl - it was allowed to roam freely in her house so the rooms were full of droppings. I don't remember it biting me, but I remember vividly its soft, snuffly nose. And no, I never maintained a swimming pool... or yes, I did, on holiday, when we rented a huge villa with friends and had to fish out the debris with a net... That's the power of the book, it just makes the brain feed on ideas and questions and then move restfully onto the next.
I keep wanting to learn more about the questioner, though, and I don't think I will now. I'm nearly at the end of the book. Or will I? Is there still time?
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