January: BREATHING LESSONS

Today's question on AM Baltimore was: "What Makes and Ideal Marriage?" A woman was phoning in to say it was common interests. "Like if you both watch the same kind of programs on TV," she explained. Maggie couldn't care less what made an ideal marriage. (She'd been married twenty-eight years.) She rolled down her window and called, "Bye now!" and the manager glanced up from his clipboard. She glided past him---a woman in charge of herself, for once, lipsticked and medium-heeled and driving an undented car.

A soft voice on the radio said, "Well, I'm about to remarry. The first time was purely for love. It was genuine, true love and it didn't work at all. Next Saturday I'm marrying for security."

Maggie looked over at the dial and said, "Fiona?"

She meant to brake, but accelerated instead and shot out of the garage and directly into the street. A Pepsi truck approaching for the left smashed into her left front fender---the only spot that had never, up till now, had the slightest thing go wrong with it.

Back when Maggie played baseball with her brothers, she used to get hurt but say she was fine, for fear they would make her quit. She'd pick herself up and run on without a limp, even if her knee were killing her. Now she was reminded of that, for then the manager rushed over, shouting, "What the . . . ?" Are you all right?" she stared straight ahead in a dignified way and told him, "Certainly. Why do you ask?" and drove on before the Pepsi driver could climb out of his truck, which was probably just as well considering the look on his face. But in fact her fender was making a very upsetting noise, something like a piece of tin dragging over gravel, so as soon as she'd turned the corner and the two men---one scratching his head, one waving his arms---had disappeared from her rearview mirror, she came to stop. Fiona was not on the radio anymore. Instead a woman with a raspy tenor was comparing her five husbands. Maggie cut the motor and got out. She could see what was causing the trouble. The fender was crumpled inward so the tire was hitting against it; she was surprised the wheel could turn, even. She squatted on the curb, grasped the rim of the fender in both hangs, and tugged. (She remembered hunkering low in the tall grass of the outfield and stealthily, wincingly peeling her jeans leg away from the patch of blood on her knee.) Flakes of gray-blue paint fell into her lap. Someone passed on the sidewalk behind her but she pretended not to notice and tugged again. This time the fender moved, not far but enough to clear the tire, and she stood up and dusted off her hands. Then she climbed back inside the car but for a minute simply sat there. "Fiona!" she said again. When she restarted the engine, the radio was advertising bank loans and she switched it off.

***

And so begins the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Anne Tyler called Breathing Lessons (Click red link to buy from Amazon.com for $7.99). Our first book club selection is a fiction novel, to be read by the end of January. Anne Tyler has a gift for taking everyday scenes (that we've undoubtedly all witnessed with our own friends and family) and turning them into hilarious life lessons. The lesson this time around: learning to breathe.

Everyone knows a couple like the Morans. Maggie, with her scatterbrained ways and her just slightly irritating---but goodhearted---attempts to make everything right for everyone... And Ira, infinitely patient, who's addicted to solitaire and who whistles out popular tunes, the only barometer of his moods. They've learned all there is to know about each other---two ordinary lives in a comfortably routine marriage. But on the road to a friend's funeral, they make some unexpected detours---and discover how extraordinary their lives really are.

If you want to laugh, cry, and discover some extraordinary about your own life, join us in the bloggy book club fun. (See the top right side bar for more information.) Please leave your name in the comment section to let us know you are going to read along! Thanks!