Need a bookish distraction on election night?
What’s your plan for election night? Have you traditionally been a team-gathering type, treating the election like the Super Bowl, summoning the clan, putting on the jersey and face paint, and following the blow-by-blow action? If so, I hope you’re planning on doing it over Zoom this year, because while pandemic fatigue is real and understandable, the virus itself doesn’t seem to care.
Or maybe you’re a private fretter, someone who prefers to be alone or maybe with your closest loved ones as you sweat out the results— in which case, you’re good to go.
Me? I’m an out-of-sight, hopefully outof-mind type. It’s not that I don’t care about the results— I care deeply— but I can’t handle the anxiety of watching election night on television. This anxiety is even more pronounced having broken this rule in 2016 by attending an election party that turned into awake for American democracy, one that’s continued for the next four years.
(That’s the paragraph that will result in angry emails from supporters of President Trump.)
Mrs. Biblioracle is much the same, so our usual pattern on election night is to go to themovies, a double feature if possible, and return to the widerworld after the outcome is known.
That’s a no go for a lot of reasons this year. For one, pandemic. For two, we’ve been hearing forweeks thatwe may not knowthe outcome of the election for days, perhaps even longer.
My first choice to solve this dilemma is to hire someone to bring a giant mallet to my house and clobber me over the head with it, rendering me unconscious with little birdies flying around my head, cartoon-style.
Failing that, I’m going to read. For those who are dealing with this election in a similar way, here’s some different choices, depending on howlong you’re going to need to be diverted fromthe news.
Election night only
If you’re only needing diversion between the time the polls close and bedtime, I recommend these short but satisfying reads:
“My Name is Lucy Barton” by Elizabeth Strout. I read this during jury duty, and it was so involving, I stuck around an extra half-hour after Iwas dismissed so I could finish the experience. It oozes with Strout’s signature empathy for her characters.
“Mrs. Caliban” by Rachel Ingalls. The story of a housewife’s affair with a 7-foottall lizard man. Beautiful and romantic and slyly funny. It’s on the short side, so make sure to read slowly and savor.
“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark. A gem of a novel that will absorb you fromthe first page and keep you in its grips for the couple of hours it will take to move towards completion.
The longer haul
Let’s imagine we have a disputed election, and you really need to check out for a longer period. Here’s a couple of choices:
Hillary Mantel’s “Cromwell Trilogy.” This starts with “Wolf Hall,” followed by “Bring up the Bodies” and ending with “The Mirror and the Light.” Plenty of political intrigue, but set in another country during another century, so it’s safe territory.
“The Deptford Trilogy” by Robertson Davies. A series of three books set in a small Ontario town after WorldWar I, with each novel (“Fifth Business,” “The Manticore,” “World of Wonders”) exploring the perspective and experiences of a different character. Reading it is like filling in a puzzle where the shape of the whole may change at any moment. You can buy all three books in a single volume, so you won’t run short of pages.
Good luck to us all.