Brian Blanchfield's "Proxies"

In the not too near future, after all the nuclear warheads have been disassembled, we'll finally have time to read the books we might have read but didn't, not having the time then to read them.

I recommend Brian Blanchfield's elegant, slim book, "Proxies", subtitled "Essays Near Knowing", as a good book to begin the new post nuclear age with. The prose is bookish without being gaudy, the essays are miniatures in much the same way USA Today miniaturizes the daily news, so that you're grateful for the information without being overwhelmed. I read one or two of them a day, often in between chores, as a reward for having done something productive.

Straddling both pre-and post-apocalyptic worlds is the work of Walter (see lower right-hand corner of the image above), the artist who sells his original watercolors on a one-way street just below Coit Tower. Each original 'Walter' retails for six dollars; my Walter brings comfort to my eyes every time I look at it.

This is what Brian Blanchfield might have said had he seen a Walter water-color and had he been me.