So while waiting for the morning pot of coffee to brew, I decided to look Gardner up on Wikipedia to see what’s been said about his life and work. The thing that startled me was the comment about the over-arching themes in his most popular novels, “The Sunlight Dialogues”, “Grendel” and “October Light”:

Each book features brutish, isolated figures struggling for integrity and understanding in an unforgiving society.

That kind of hit home. I suppose there’s good reason why I always found so much sympathy for his characters – even as far back as my high school years. And all these years later, things are not so different on that level. My life, summed up in eleven words is, in a word – potent. And of course I’m sure that many people feel the same way – which is a tribute to his notoriety as an author. But still, I feel like I’ve had my bell rung.

So once I’ve done with “Grendel” [again] I suppose I’ll look up his other works and go through them, too. Maybe when I stop by the local library to donate some reference books [I've been carrying around for years and should have given away long ago] I can get a library card and check out “The Sunlight Dialogues” and “October Light” while I’m there.

“Things fade. Alternatives exclude.“