online interview question: Book You Most Want To Read Again For The First Time

Every reader has a different answer, or different reason for it.  Mine, as you see.

Thurber has a story called “The Dog That Bit People.” I loved the story, thought it immensely funny, could barely finish it for laughing when I read it aloud to my girls, who also laughed–though whether at me or the story, I couldn’t be sure. When my godmother, Caroline, whom I loved with every bone in my body, was dying, I took “The Dog That Bit People” to read to her and cheer her up. She saw me and knew me, but little else; there was little of her left. I started to read the story and wept into the pages and couldn’t go on. I have not looked at the story since, but there is a part of me that wants to think if I did read it again, and if I laughed until I couldn’t breathe, and if my girls were girls again and laughed too, then Caroline would be fine and would laugh with us.