Sunday 30 August 2009

ok, so you had a great holiday, but what are the best two bits in James Lever's Me Cheeta?


A difficult question, because it's such a good book (I thought it was very good almost all the way through, and then I realised by the end that I had been solidly and persistently underestimating it). It's the 'memoir' of the chimp who acted alongside Johnny Weismuller in most of the main Tarzan movies, in case you've missed it, and I'm really glad it's Booker-longlisted. I imagine I will have a different position on this the next time I think about it, but I am going to go with:
There's me and Don looking fifteen years younger, a commission in oils, and here's our sofa, with our twenty-six-year-deep indentations on it. It seems impossible. The years accelerate like coins vibrating on countertops.
And:
So it's a perfect day coming to an end now, in Palm Springs, and I'm flat out on the lounger having flipped through this memoir of mine. It's not Shakespeare, sure, but I'm totally amazed at how it's turned out, given that I've just been randomly prodding at the keyboard.

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