Whether I’m leaving on a short trip like this one or a long trip like the one next month, I feel the same mixture of nostalgia and apprehension…
Leaving
Hometown Reading: Carmichael’s Bookstore
I always find that a reading in my hometown is both warmer and more disconcerting than reading in other cities, warmer, because so many old friends and relatives are sitting on the chairs at the back of the bookstore, disconcerting because they are old friends and relatives who do not view me first of all as a writer. Either they know too much about me, or not enough. They have come out of that mixture of kindness and curiosity—what we call support—that leaves me a little breathless, like a hearty slap on the back.