Becoming the Duchess Goldblatt
There are a couple of local singer/songwriters, that old Austin sound?
Not quite country, not quite hard rock?
Couple of those people I follow in case there are any pop-up shows worth catching. Lyle Lovett kept retweeting the Duchess Goldblatt, so that’s how I stumbled into the twitter connection. From there, it leads to a book.
Missed Lyle Lovett doing a virtual interview with The Duchess Goldblatt, and I’m unsure of the details. Book was released, and I got a library copy, digital copy. That’s a cruel trick.1
Library copy, so I couldn’t underline and scribble margin notes, but I wanted to. Watching a marriage dissolve is painful when one has bought the whole dream.
“What’s that Faulkner quote?” Page 17.
My people. Close enough to the South to understand suffering. And stultifying humidity.
I admire the connection with Lyle Lovett. While I enjoy his music, and have seen him numerous times, my favorite connection was when Jimmy Buffett sang, “If I had boat,” at a Houston show, mid-nineties I’m thinking.
The way she described her affection for Lyle Lovett, and his highly respected canon of work, the sheer volume itself is amazing — the way “The Duchess” describes her feeling about Lyle Lovett? I feel the same, about Joe. R. Lansdale, Robert Earl Keen, of course, Lyle Lovett, and Ray Wylie Hubbard. Jimmy Buffett, too — they are all soundtracks for my life, at one stage or another.
Becoming the Duchess Goldblatt
It goes much further, though. Part memoir, part revealing “kiss and tell,” but in part? Just that healthy — and eloquently expressed ability to purge our demons, and love life.
Besides a luminary like Lyle Lovett, another name jumps out, the Duchess is a friend of Benjamin Dreyer. The Benjamin Dreyer — Dreyer’s English? Not that Duchess herself is any slouch, just, that’s so cool. Maybe not flashy, fancy authors but people who seriously wordsmith, all day long, every day.
Trying to catch it early, I checked my online library services, and neither one carried it, at first. Late to the game, the local library now has four copies. One of which I was reading, and to exacerbate the situation?
Now I have to buy copies and send it to others who should appreciate this fine book. I’m not sure what to call it, other than, like, what it is, a book.
She claims not be nefarious, but that was well-played, Duchess Goldblatt. I read the library copy so now I hav to buy at least two copies as gifts for friends who otherwise wouldn’t read the book. Well-played.
Wait, wait, a Dead Milkmen note? That’s some serious street credit.
There’s a long list of respected authors, but Duchess Goldblatt accomplishes this herself, with what I would guess is under her own steam, with her own style.
Strange, but the message makes this one of the best books I’ve read in recent memory.
Poetry is the language that is highly charged and carries more meaning than regular language, and by that definition, this is a poetic text.
After so much murder and mayhem, and TV-news inspired traumatic stress? A book like this is an elegant glass of ice tea, slightly sweet, with a sprig of mint from the garden, little touch of a fresh garnish and flavor.
Becoming the Duchess Goldblatt
@duchessgoldblat
#DuchessGoldblatt
- – Duchess Goldblatt
Got to buy a copy, now. ↩