This seemed to me like a book written a few decades before its late '60s printing, and it felt as if written in Russian and translated. So I had its origin entirely wrong. The seeming might not have been due to anything more than its time and place, but the feeling was due to Bernard Malamud’s perfect prose. Then I thought maybe it was a response to Darkness at Noon, but I don’t find that it is. Wrongful imprisonment is hardly unique to the Russian empire or Russian soviet, and the Koestler parallel was only my groping.
It is based somewhat on fact, on the case of a Jewish man arrested at the same time and place for the same crime, but also, said Malamud, was inspired by Dreyfuss and Sacco & Vincetti. It took me reading Woman on the Edge of Time, and when was that, why was that? by 1990, I know, but why did I choose it? to learn about the latter pair.
When I read The Crying of Lot 49, RDC wondered if I would be frustrated by its lack of closure. The Fixer lacks plot closure in the same way, but the theme has been thoroughly explored, and it is complete.
Precor Elliptical, 30' "weight loss" program, which I did for ~5' before deciding that a constant 20/20 incline and 12/20 resistance was better (perhaps in fact as well as in opinion) than only intervals. 410 calories according to the machine (which I assume inflates the number but also doesn't know I'm pumping my arms), 3800+ strides. Next time I'll use handweights again.
Also, weights! I'm stoked for weights, for once in my life. Chest press, fly, lat pull-down, row, something or other for lats, biceps, the neck, and what I figure is the human equivalent of the chicken's pope's nose, something or other for lats and biceps only that was less difficult despite using fewer muscles (the angle?), and shoulders. Also crunches on the bench dealie, with no weights whatsoever but absolutely not using my arms to press myself up (which I see a lot of people doing and which I think is a mistake.
I feel sore in a good way.