Just finished a good book loaned to me by my good friend and even better step-daughter. And tonight I came across this quote:

All good books are alike
in that they are truer
than if they had really happened.
~ Ernest Hemingway (in Esquire, December 1934)

The book was Water For Elephants, and I can not even tell you why I liked it so much. Perhaps I am just a sucker for "old-men-in-nursing-homes-telling-the-stories-of-their-lives" setting.
You know, like "Losing Julia" and "The Notebook" two of my all-time favorites.
Anyway, I'm not sure about the validity of Hemingway's statement, but I do know that I WANT this book to be true ... while accepting it as a work of fiction non the less. Jacob will remain one of my favorite old men, (second only to Patrick in Losing Julia) because he can cry without shame, and because he has helped me to remember that being 90, or 93 - does not change a person, it simply traps your authentic self in an older, less convenient package that is too often dismissed by youth. Take some time and look inside ... it may suprise you.
P.S. I'ts good to be home.

Posted by sunybank at May 10, 2007 07:44 AM