Ten Years in the Tub (21 page)

BOOKS READ
:

     
  
Train
—Pete Dexter

     
  
This Is Serbia Calling
—Matthew Collin

     
  
The Invisible Woman
—Claire Tomalin

     
  
Y: The Last Man Vols 1–3
—Vaughan, Guerra, Marzan Jr., Chadwick

     
  
I Never Liked You
—Chester Brown

     
  
David Boring
—Daniel Clowes

I
f you wanted to draw a family tree of everything I read and bought this month—and you never know, it could be fun, if you're a writer, say, or a student, and there are several large holes in your day—you'd have to put
McSweeney's
13 and Pete Dexter's novel
Train
right at the top.
^2
2
They're the Adam and Eve here, or they would be if Adam and Eve had been hermaphrodites, each able to give birth independently of the other.
McSweeney's
13 and
Train
never actually mated to produce a beautiful synthesis of the two; and nor did any of the other books actually get together, either. So it would be a pretty linear family tree, to be honest: one straight line coming out of
McSweeney's
13, because
McSweeney's
begat a bunch of graphic novels (
McSweeney's
13, edited by Chris Ware, is a comics issue, if you're not from 'round these parts), and another straight line coming out of
Train
, which leads to a bunch of nonfiction books, for reasons I will come to later.
Train
didn't directly beget anything, although it did plant some seeds. (I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Well, if
Train
and
McSweeney's
13 never actually mated, and if
Train
never directly begat anything, then how good is this whole family-tree thing? And my answer is, Oh, it's good. Trust me. I have a writer's instinct.) Anyway, if you do decide to draw the family tree, the good news is that it's easy; the bad news is that it's boring, pointless, and arguably makes no sense. Up to you.