The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup

I was waiting for Nancy to sign some papers at the mortgage company today, so I sat in the waiting area and read Susan Orlean’s book, The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup.  I didn’t get much further than reading the Introduction, but it contained a paragragh which really nailed it on the head for me.  Orlean talks about her love of non-fiction and refers to a piece she once read in The New Yorker: After I read it I had that rare, heady feeling that I now knew something about life I hadn’t known before I read it.  At the same time, the story was so natural that I couldn’t believe it had never been written until then.  Like the best examples of literary non-fiction, it was at once familiar and original, like a folk melody—as good an example as you could ever find of the poetry of facts and the art in ordinary life.  *That* is exactly why I love non-fiction so much.  I love having the chance to share someone else’s experiences and to “walk a mile in their shoes”, even if the mile may not seem particularly interesting, or the shoes particularly comfortable.  I want to read about the lives of doctors and nurses and explorers and soldiers and veterinarians and animal rescue workers and ordinary people so I have the chance to have as many life experiences as possible, even if it’s just through the pages of a book.  I have this really deep yearning in me to climb Mount Everest, even though I don’t like heights and I’ve never climbed even a large hill and I don’t really like the cold, either, and I’m certainly not in great physical shape.  But climbing Mount Everest seems like it would be the ultimate in physical achievements, so I read as much as I can find by people who’ve accomplished it, especially if they’re just ordinary people like me who want to do something extraordinary.  I’m quite sure I’ll never even get close to Mount Everest in my lifetime, probably not even Nepal, but by reading stories by other people, it’s a little bit like being there.  A little bit is better than none at all.

Getting back to the book itself, I love Orlean’s writing, and of course I think this book is great.  It’s no “Orchid Thief”, of course, but it’s not half bad ;-)

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 02/19 at 12:06 AM

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