My Private Property by Mary Ruefle


I started this book yesterday and finished it today, which tells you that it was both a really enjoyable read and very short. The only thing I knew about this book was that it was written in prose by an intriguing Vermont poet (which was enough to convince me to read it). It was really good. 

Some favorite vignettes:

Some favorite quotes:
  • "A dead body in a box can be lowered into the ground using heavy equipment, but we do not consider it trash. When the dead are not in boxes and there is a man-made mountain of them we use heavy equipment to bury them together, like trash. It is estimated that everywhere we are walking on a piece of trash and the hard, insoluble remains of the dead. Whatever the case, the dead and the garbage are together in the ground where we cannot see them, for we do not relish the sight or smell of them. If we did not go about our burying, we would be in danger of being overcome" (8). 
  • "I am never lonely, and never bored. Except when I bore myself, which is my definition of loneliness - to bore one-self. It makes a body lonesome, that," (43). 
  • "Am I vain to think of my head as a book? Am I not transcribing the book of my head as I write?" (53). 
  • "I am not even sure I own my own head, but my innermost fantasy is to own twelve beloved heads nestled in an egg carton, to comfort me in moments of dearth in exchange for my infinite love. How can I call myself benevolent? I want, as my personal private property, twelve human heads," (64). 

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