2024: Return of the Man Who Can
The Man Who Can is the most potent and most pragmatic of my alter-egos, the one who solves problems and gets things done, but he has been unavailable, hors de combat for much of this past year. Two overseas trips — to the U.S. in June and Italy in October — interrupted my, and his, work. And then a long-awaited operation, performed on November 22, made it impossible for me to do anything physically strenuous, or even make serious mental effort, even with his help; my body needed all its energy to heal itself.
But the scheduled healing period is nearly over, to be complete on January 3, so in 2024 I shall be calling on the Man Who Can to help me solve neglected problems and, most importantly, to accomplish these projects:
1, a new novel, for now called simply N3 (because it will be my third published novel), which will pick up and develop the story of the revolutionary spirit described in my novel of the Paris Commune, Rabble, by following that movement through the late 19th and then 20th century, in Germany, Russia and beyond;
2, acquiring fluency in German, not just because I’ll need it for research for this new novel but also because it’s something I’ve always wanted to do;
3, writing pending reviews of books read this past year, mostly related to my novel’s theme;
and for something completely different,
4, recovering and developing facility in playing “classical” guitar, including pieces from Tárrega, Sor to much more recent work by Rodrigo, Brouwer et al., just for my own amusement and mental and manual exercise.
So there are my New Year’s resolutions!
