A work of art that retraced the conquest of happiness would be a revolutionary one.
--Albert Camus
Since my usual subject on Tuesday is Amsterdam, I had planned to write about the symbol for the old city, three X’s, and seeing that on a flag a few days ago as I ate disappointing tapas. Perhaps I’ll get to that next week.
But last night I went to dinner at place owned by Rami. Rami is a pretty good restaurateur who got lucky and hired a Turkish chef (I call him “maestro”) who cranks out some of the tastiest Italian food in town. Because of Covid, I had not been there in quite a while and it was wonderful to enjoy the comfort of comforting food.
With me I took The Age of Magic by Ben Okri, a novel I imagine I got from Mr. Dash, and which I began reading after ordering my pasta.
The book begins with the two quotations, one of which is the line from Camus.
In part, happiness has been a subject of late so the line struck me as I opened the book.
But also, yesterday, True Slade asked me wha…
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