Myla Goldberg's novel Bee Season is one of my favorite books of the last few years--such a fun and lovely meditation on language and family and spirituality. I mostly look forward to reading her new book, Wickett's Remedy; I say mostly because it's set in a flu epidemic, and I find myself unreasonably nervous about the potential Avian flu crisis (thanks for stirring up fear, media!) It makes me a bit hesitant to read the novel--which might make my nervousness even more acute--although I suppose it's best to face those fears head on, and deal with them with clear eyes. Plus it will be cool to get another infusion of Myla Goldberg's words.

Powells has a new interview with Myla Goldberg on their site. I was especially taken with this exchange:

Offer a favorite sentence or passage from another writer.

"...human speech is like a cracked tin kettle, on which we hammer out tunes to make bears dance when we long to move the stars."

The first time I read that, in Madame Bovary, I had to stop reading and look at the floor for a while in order to recover.

That quote from Flaubert captures the limits of language (which I've been grappling with) and the gorgeousness and depth of language all at once. I may need to look at the floor for awhile to recover, myself.