Sunday, September 6, 2009

The Corner of Winter and Summer


The middle section of my first novel, Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear, takes place in a New York suburban neighborhood very much inspired by my childhood surroundings, Forest Hills Gardens. The narrative in this section takes the form of a series of linked third person stories about Harriet in her childhood (in narrative strategy contrast to the epistolary first person of grown-up Harriet in Part One or the straightforward third person of Part Three that returns to the present of the Part One notebook of Harriet's letters).
As Harriet bicycles through those "Oxbridge Gardens" streets, it would have been just right for her to observe the uncanniness of a certain Forest Hills Gardens street corner a block from my childhood home: the intersection of Winter and Summer.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely. Reminds me of a favorite SoHo corner, Spring and Greene.

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  2. Or my favorite upper Manhattan corner, Seaman and Cumming. (Sorry, sorry, but how often do I get to use that one in context?)

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  3. Lisa, you crack me up.

    And Katharine I think "The Corner of Summer and Winter" would be an excellent title.

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  4. Haruspex, I used to live on Spring St, #204. -- Kat

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  5. We don't have any signs that pretty in Somerville. I think they would be stolen instantly.

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  6. Forest Hills Gardens, though part of the borough of Queens and therefore part of New York City, is incredibly, quaintly, beautifully unto itself when it comes to signs and lampposts.

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  7. Right downtown In Boston, we have Winter Street running directly into Summer Street (and vice versa!).

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