The last time I had a beer with Willard Spiegelman — SMU prof, onetime D Magazine columnist, aesthete, noted swimmer — he bitched about how loud it was in the Old Monk. The dude is old. I mean old old. I heard him once bemoan that too many of his colleagues at SMU wear dungarees. That’s what he called them: dungarees. (Willard wears a jacket and bow tie when he teaches.) So it makes sense that Willard would write a book titled Senior Moments: Looking Back, Looking Ahead (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $24). It’s a large-print book.
I’m kidding! The point size of the type is actually probably too small for Willard to read.
I’m kidding again! I should stop!
Okay, here’s part of the Kirkus review, which calls the book “a wide-ranging collection of essays reflecting the septuagenarian author’s rejection of the more hysterical predictions of cultural doom”:
As someone devoted to literature, the author’s sensibilities lean heavily toward the life of the mind and immersion in the arts, especially poetry, and at times he can come across as faintly effete. In matters of taste, he can be dismissive of predilections that are less aesthetically oriented. But he is unassailable in contemplating the glories of books and reading; the delusions (and gratifications) of nostalgia; the plague of noise; and the virtues of a silent, solitary study of a work of art.
Yup, that’s about right. I recommend it. I’ll go one step further. Buy this book and also buy David Searcy’s Shame and Wonder (Random House). It is phenomenal that two collections of essays have been published by Dallas authors (and by big publishing houses) in the same year. Keep both tomes on your bedside table, as I’m doing now. Alternate titles, reading one essay by David, then one by Willard. You’ll enjoy spending time in the company of the two men.
Oh, one more thing. Willard has two upcoming readings: September 22, 6:30 p.m., at the Nasher (go to nashersculpturecenter.org to register by September 15); and October 26, 6:30 p.m., at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, 6:30 p.m. Both dates are a bit late for Willard. He likes to be in bed by 8.
