Anticipation

There are many things I enjoy anticipating, but vacations and new books are the top two.

I have a canoe trip planned for this fall.The anticipation of this vacation has sustained me for months, but now the anxiety of preparing for a week of being a river rat is gaining on the anticipation endorphins. With the current drought in the West, it may be more of a walk across sandbars than an idyllic float through the Canyonlands, but the beauty of the Green River will trump all annoyances.

The anticipation on my mind today is about Michaels Chabon's new book, Telegraph Avenue. It will arrive in my mailbox tomorrow and I'm seriously needing a good work of fiction right now. Harper Collins went as far as to build a record store named after the fictional store in the novel. It was open for a week and carried vinyl records supplied by an independent dealer. I'm told this technique is called "defictionalization", but I have no desire to look into the phenomena any further. The book is enough to satisfy me.

My favorite Chabon books include The Wonder Boys and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. He won a Pulitzer Prize for The Mysteries of Pittsburgh.

Now I have a brand new book to look forward to, but I admit the setting is an important part of the draw. I've always loved the Berkeley/Oakland part of the Bay Area and look forward to going there again even if it's only in my imagination.

Will the book live up to its prepublication hype? I've been fooled before by enthusiastic reviews but I
believe Chabon's worst book would still be better than most of what's been published.