Thursday, June 11, 2020

One Last Lunch: A Final Meal with Those Who Meant So Much to Us, edited by Erica Heller: Book Beginning


Another Friday is here and another opportunity to share the first sentence (or so) of the books we are reading.

What book has captured your attention this week? Please share the opening lines on your own blog or social media. Add a link to your post below. If there is no link, leave a comment to let others know where to find your post.

Of course, you can simply leave your Book Beginning in a comment below. Please include the title and author.

Please use the hashtag #bookbeginnings so we can find each other on social media.

MY BOOK BEGINNING



To imagine lunch now with my father, Joe Heller, it would have to be in spring.

-- One Last Lunch: A Final Meal with Those Who Meant So Much to Us, edited by Erica Heller. This wonderful collection of essays is available now from Abrams Books.

Erica Heller, a writer and the daughter of Joseph Heller, the author of Catch-22, gathered essays from 49 people all imagining a final meal with a loved one who has passed away. Contributors include children, friends, acquaintances, professional colleagues of writers, actors, and other well known personalities, such as Julia Child, Paul Newman, Prince, and Nora Ephron.

You can read my recent interview with Erica Heller about One Last Lunch here.

YOUR BOOK BEGINNING

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FRIDAY 56

Freda at Freda's Voice hosts The Friday 56, a perfect tie in with Book Beginnings. Join her to share a two-sentence teaser from the book you are featuring this week.


MY FRIDAY 56

We lolled on the divans like pashas, while George brought us coffee on a brass tray and sat down to fill us in on our lunch. It turned out that Burroughs was withdrawing from a heavy heroin habit and was being looked after by his friends, among them Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, all of whom were living in a nearby ratbag hotel on rue Git-le-Coeur.

From the essay by Aviva Layton imagining a last lunch with William Burroughs. That is a serendipitous Friday 56 for me because I just this morning finished reading Burroughs' magnum opus, Naked Lunch. I read Naked Lunch as one of my picks for my 2020 Reading Classic Books Challenge -- my LGBT pick since June is Pride Month.

Sometimes you just find Storyline Serendipity!