The Lightness: A Novel
Page 26
I took a step toward her. “Serena,” I said.
“That’s not my name,” she said. She hid the flowers behind her back.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “My mistake.”
And so I let her go.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I have quoted, referenced, and borrowed liberally in this novel. Many instances are indicated directly in the text; some few others I will mention here, and the rest will be left to the reader to notice, Google, or ignore.
The Tolstoy line referenced in passing is from “The Kreutzer Sonata,” as translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude: “It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness.”
The version of Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” from which I quote was translated by Richard F. Burton.
I first came across the story of Geshé Tenpa in Lama Surya Das’s The Snow Lion’s Turquoise Mane: Wisdom Tales from Tibet.
As for the quips about the parachute and the corpse, I’ve been hearing those my entire life; like so much else, I suspect they come to me thirdhand from Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
It is Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, writing in the introduction to The Bliss of Inner Fire, who describes tummo as “the real chocolate.” (However, I should tell you that the instructions for tummo in this novel are somewhat inexact, and are unlikely get you anywhere, chocolate or nay.)
While writing this book, I consulted the Online Etymology Dictionary, compiled by Douglas Harper, as well as Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche’s What Makes You Not a Buddhist, which is a book my father likes to hand out to young people.
It is, of course, the narrator of Pnin who prefers that doom not jam.
Finally, as far as I know, it was Sage Bierster who invented the term “pocketing.” I hope she will not object to its usage here.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
There are so many people without whom this book would not exist. I want to thank firstly my agent, Claudia Ballard, who read an (embarrassingly) early draft and asked me—very politely—if I thought the novel was done, or if maybe I would be willing to work on it a little, and then proceeded to push me to write the much-improved version you have in your hands; and my brilliant editor, Jessica Williams, who understood me immediately, and who saw everything I could not, and who made this book shine. I am so grateful for the attention and effort and insight of these two astounding women.
My endless gratitude also goes to everyone at WME, William Morrow, the Borough Press, and HarperCollins, but especially Charlotte Cray, Julia Elliott, Carla Josephson, Eliza Rosenberry, and Molly Waxman. The same to Mary Karr, Téa Obreht, and Garth Greenwell, for their vital early kindness and support.
Thank you to my parents, Bob and Marisa, for a lifetime of love and care, for raising me in a house full of books, and most importantly—though some details were inevitably stolen, sorry, guys—for not being the parents in this book.
To everyone at the University of Virginia’s MFA program, but especially Jane Alison, who “suggested” I write a novel for my thesis, and to all my many other teachers over the years, including Robert Cohen, whose Barthelme-heavy reading lists and early tolerance for my nonsense were invaluable.
To the very earliest readers of this novel, Jane (again), Chris Tilghman, Chloe Benjamin, and Bri Cavallaro, none of whom advised that I quit writing and go to law school, at least to my face.
To all of my friends for their endless love and patience, but especially to Maddie, Dan, and Bri (again) for being generous advisors and confidants during the whole terrifying process of writing and selling and publishing a book. Unfortunately for them it is unlikely that I will shut up, even now.
Finally, last but not least, and in fact most: to Raf, who has probably read ten versions of this book, bless him, and who made writing it possible in a hundred other ways, large and small. Lick, paw.
About the Author
EMILY TEMPLE was born in Syracuse, New York. She earned a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia, where she was the recipient of a Henfield Prize. She now lives in Brooklyn, where she is a senior editor at Literary Hub. This is her first novel.
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