{"id":4257,"date":"2021-01-10T11:20:36","date_gmt":"2021-01-10T18:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=4257"},"modified":"2021-01-10T11:20:36","modified_gmt":"2021-01-10T18:20:36","slug":"rosalind-and-dez-in-lausanne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/4257","title":{"rendered":"Rosalind and Dez In Lausanne"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the sequel to Rosalind’s Choice<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear Katrina<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rosalind here, hoping all is well\nwith you and the gang at Caf\u00e9 Bleu<\/em>. I\u2019ve\ntaken to writing actual letters again as part of my attempt to wean myself from\nmy phone, which is something I\u2019ve wanted to do for a while now. So far the\nresults are good. I\u2019m less anxious, sleeping better, and I have much more\nenergy during the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I miss you, but I don\u2019t miss the\ndaily grind, pun intended. Remember when we calculated I made 50,000 lattes a\nyear during my four years there. I wonder how many tens of thousands of tables\nI cleared? Not that I think what I\u2019m doing now is any more important than\nworking at Caf\u00e9 Bleu<\/em>. I don\u2019t. But\nI\u2019m grateful for the respite and the change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been living in Lausanne for\nexactly nine months. I still wake up many mornings thinking I\u2019m in Seattle. Then\nmy new reality dawns on me and I jump out of bed and wander through this lovely\nold house to the kitchen where most mornings I find Mama speaking her quickly\nimproving French with Genevieve, our cook and housekeeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we have a housekeeper and<\/em> a resident gardener and handyman.\nGenevieve is fifty-seven and her husband Henri is fifty-four. They live in a large\ncottage on the other side of our enormous vegetable garden. They have lived\nhere for eleven years, cooking and cleaning and gardening for the writers who come\nto live here. They insist we are their favorites of the five writers they\u2019ve\nserved, and we believe them because we adore them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it were up to Genevieve, she\nwould work for us seven days a week, coming and going throughout the day, cooking\nall our meals, and cleaning a room or two. However, Mama insists we fend for\nourselves two days a week, so Genevieve allows this, though she often comes\nover on her supposed days off to see if we need anything, stays to chat, and\nthe next thing we know she\u2019s making us lunch or soaking beans for tomorrow\u2019s\nstew or helping me improve the supper I\u2019m making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Henri has granted us a patch of\nground in the vegetable garden because Mama loves to garden, but then he assumes\ndominion over what we plant, so now we mostly acquiesce to Henri being the\ngardener, we the lucky recipients of his bounty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Henri and Genevieve speak very\nlittle English, which is a good thing because otherwise we would never learn\nFrench, which we are both learning pretty well due to blabbing with Genevieve\nwho was a chef in a fine restaurant before becoming housekeeper and cook of The\nWriter\u2019s House, which is what our house is called by the locals and our hosts\nat the university.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we do all day?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the first few months we were\nzealous tourists exploring Lausanne, which is a beautiful old city. We\u2019ve been\nto Geneva twice and Zurich for five days in May to visit Mama\u2019s translator Dirk\nRosenfeld and be feted by her publisher Werner Schaffen. Then in August we went\nto Germany for three weeks and Mama read at universities and in small theatres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In America a few thousand people may\nknow of Dez Peoples, but in Germany and Switzerland and France and Spain her\npoems are taught in schools and universities, and the German, French, and Spanish\ntranslations of her poetry sell thousands of copies every year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now that she\u2019s here instead of\non the other side of the world, she has visitors. Poets, novelists, philosophers,\nprofessors, playwrights, journalists, musicians, all wanting to talk to her and\nhave her sign copies of her books and invite her to read with them or come to\ntheir universities. And I am her appointment secretary! Wednesday and Thursday\nafternoons are reserved for these visitors, and every week or two we have a\ndinner party. Mama\u2019s sponsor at the university, Karl Fleury, a wonderful man\nwho refers to Mama as my poet<\/em>, comes to\nthe parties with his Spanish wife Carmen, and we invite three or four other\npeople, and Genevieve and I make a feast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Et moi? I take long walks with\nBianca who has no trouble communicating with Swiss dogs, and I go to market\nwith Genevieve almost every day. I\u2019m learning so much about food and cooking\nfrom her. When you come to visit, we\u2019ll go to market every day and cook\nmarvelous things together. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I\u2019ve started writing stories and\npoems and scenes for plays. I haven\u2019t finished anything I like very much, but\nI\u2019m enjoying the practice. I\u2019m also taking lots of pictures, mostly of people\nwho come to visit, and of Genevieve and Henri and Mama. Switzerland is so<\/em> picturesque, but I\u2019m most interested\nin taking pictures of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can hear you wondering what about men?<\/em> Well I am madly in love\nwith living here in what Mama calls The Land Where You Don\u2019t Need A Car Because\nTrains Go Everywhere, but I haven\u2019t fallen in love with anyone. Yet. I\u2019ve been\non a few dates and had a thrilling kiss from a handsome guy who was eager to\nget married and have kids with me, but I am definitely not ready for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have four years and three more months\nhere. The guest room awaits you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Love,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roz<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a Thursday in early October, Dez gives\nan interview to Andrea, a young French journalist. They sit in the living room of\nThe Writer\u2019s House and Andrea records the interview on her phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: (her English quite good) How\nis it for you living here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: Unlike anything I\u2019ve ever known\nor dreamed of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: How so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: I\u2019ve been publishing poems in\nAmerica for twenty-five years, and by American standards I am a successful\npoet, though only one of my books sold more than a thousand copies in America. In\nthose twenty-five years, I\u2019ve gotten a handful of letters from American readers\nand a few other American writers. But here I am something of a literary\ncelebrity because Dirk Rosenfeld translated my poems into German for the Werner\nSchaffen editions and their success inspired French and Spanish translations. But\nif not for Dirk\u2019s translations, and his insisting Werner Schaffen publish me in\nthe first place, I would not be here and you would have no interest in me.\nFurthermore, I might never have published another volume of poetry in America\nif not for the success of the German English edition of my first volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: You don\u2019t think another\npublisher would have done for you what Werner Schaffen did?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: They never would have heard of\nme. The fact is I am the beneficiary of incredibly good luck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: Yet your poems are\nmasterpieces. Surely you would have eventually been recognized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: I appreciate your praise, but I\nthink you are na\u00efve. A far as I\u2019m concerned, culture results from nepotism and\nthe occasional fluke. Many brilliant writers never succeed in publishing\nanything, and the same is true for musicians and artists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: So how did Dirk come to read\nyour first volume of poems? Before\nRosalind<\/em>, yes? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: (nodding) Dirk tells the story\nbetter than I. You should ask him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: I will. But for now would\nyou mind giving me your version?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: He was in Paris on business for\nWerner Schaffen. He and I are the same age, so he was thirty-nine. He went to a\ncaf\u00e9 for lunch and there were two American women having a difficult time with\ntheir waiter. Dirk offered his services as translator for the women, they asked\nhim to join them, and during the meal, when they learned he was a translator of\nEnglish books into German, one of the women handed him a copy of Before Rosalind<\/em> and said, \u201cYou should\ntranslate these poems. They\u2019re fantastic.\u201d Dirk read the book on the train returning\nto Switzerland and became my champion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: Did you ever get a chance to\nthank the woman who gave him your book?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: I did. Her name is Elaine\nCantrell. I sent her a copy of my second book Now She Is Two<\/em> and thanked her for giving my first book to Dirk. She\nwrote back and we\u2019ve corresponded ever since. In fact, she and her partner are\ncoming to visit here in the spring. We\u2019ve never met in-person, but we\u2019re old\nfriends now and I\u2019m looking forward to spending time with her. She\u2019s a\npsychotherapist in Boston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: Your daughter Rosalind is\nhere with you in Lausanne?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: I would not have come without\nher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: May I ask why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: She\u2019s my best friend and I\nwouldn\u2019t want to spend five years living so far from her. My residency here is\nfor five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: And then you\u2019ll return to\nAmerica?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: Barring another miracle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: What do you mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: I mean I would love to live\nhere for the rest of my life. I have no desire to return to America. It\u2019s a\npunitive society. If you don\u2019t have lots of money, life is hard there. And even\nif you have lots of money, the culture is ageist and sexist and racist and painfully\nmediocre. Here you have free healthcare, fantastic public transportation, free\neducation, hundreds of excellent small publishers, marvelous theatres and performance\nvenues, and an ethos of sharing. Most of what people here assume are the basic\nrights of life don\u2019t exist in America. So why would I want to go back?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrea: I\u2019m sure the Swiss would\nlove to make you a citizen of their country. And so would the French and the\nGermans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dez: From your lips to God\u2019s ears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

fin<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missing You<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the sequel to Rosalind’s Choice. Dear Katrina Rosalind here, hoping all is well with you and the gang at Caf\u00e9 Bleu. I\u2019ve taken to writing actual letters again as part of my attempt to wean myself from my phone, which is something I\u2019ve wanted to do for a while now. So far the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6399,76,6397,6398,51,9,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4257"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4261,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4257\/revisions\/4261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}