{"id":82242,"date":"2015-02-02T12:54:09","date_gmt":"2015-02-02T17:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=82242"},"modified":"2015-02-02T14:33:32","modified_gmt":"2015-02-02T19:33:32","slug":"bright-lights-big-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/02\/02\/bright-lights-big-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright Lights, Big City"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"forjulia\"<\/a>

From the giveaway table.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned my building\u2019s giveaway table<\/a> in this space before. If you\u2019re clearing your bookshelves, you can leave just about any volume on the table and find it snapped up with gratifying alacrity. I\u2019ve scavenged\u00a0treasures<\/a> aplenty there, and marveled at all manner of curiosities: The Kosher Cajun Cookbook<\/em>,\u00a0Celebrity Vineyards, Who\u2019s Who in<\/em> Dogs<\/em>, a CD of music for kids called\u00a0Oy Baby!<\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0The<\/em> Winds of Fortune:\u00a0the Memoirs of Guy de Rothschild.\u00a0<\/em>(<\/em>Incidentally, if anyone is studying macroeconomics, there\u2019s a pretty good line in used textbooks.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

But over the weekend, I picked up something different. It\u2019s an old Modern Library hardcover of War and Peace<\/em>, the Constance Garnett translation. And there, on the flyleaf, is an inscription: <\/p>\n

\n

For Julie\u2014
Because she is the only remaining bright light in a blacked out town.
From
George
Atlantic City 1942<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is a boy\u2019s handwriting, I think. I have not tried too hard to imagine the rest: the war, loss, a reunion, a life together, or maybe just growing up and growing apart. Whatever I guessed would be wrong and would be informed by a hundred romantic movies and books. Still,\u00a0I can\u2019t help but\u00a0imagine what preceded the gift: the serious conversation, his impressions of the novel, his lectures\u2014her interest, real or feigned\u2014and the sense that, when going off to war, Tolstoy might make some sense of it. The urgency of it all. Maybe they corresponded about it; maybe she never read it.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know who left this book on the giveaway table. It\u2019s a big building, and a lot of people have been here for a long time\u2014some since the 1930s. I don\u2019t think anyone has died lately. And supposing someone had, wouldn\u2019t that call for a less piecemeal dispersal of her library?<\/p>\n

Then again, why hold the book for this long, only to give it away? Maybe someone got it years ago\u2014at a used bookstore, or a tag sale\u2014and is now passing it along himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve never loved those stories of objects passing through the ages, like The Red Violin.\u00a0<\/em>Even\u00a0Hitty: Her First Hundred<\/em>\u00a0Years<\/em> feels somber. These narratives are like\u00a0mementos mori\u00a0<\/em>and give one a\u00a0feeling of insignificance,\u00a0like\u00a0looking at the night sky. But I felt I had to take the book\u2014there was no question about it\u2014and the moment had a certain weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I scoured the book for notations and memoranda. I only found one, near the end, so faint that it might have been made carelessly, in error.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWhy are you going away? Why are you so upset? What for?\u201d Natasha asked Pierre, looking with challenging eyes into his face.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I love you!\u201d he wanted to say, but he did not say it. He crimsoned till the tears came, and dropped his eyes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve mentioned my building\u2019s giveaway table in this space before. If you\u2019re clearing your bookshelves, you can leave just about any volume on the table and find it snapped up with gratifying alacrity. I\u2019ve scavenged\u00a0treasures aplenty there, and marveled at all manner of curiosities: The Kosher Cajun Cookbook,\u00a0Celebrity Vineyards, Who\u2019s Who in Dogs, a CD […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[16856,17,16854,16857,16300,16853,4861,2111,16855,12648,7021,4473],"class_list":["post-82242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-atlantic-city","tag-books","tag-flyleaves","tag-giveaway-table","tag-happenstance","tag-inscriptions","tag-leo-tolstoy","tag-love","tag-love-notes","tag-marginalia","tag-notes","tag-war-and-peace"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAn Inscribed Edition of \u201cWar and Peace\u201d Tells Another Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein found an old copy of \u201cWar and Peace\u201d on a giveaway table in her building. 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