I could not find the book, so I looked at two other books by today's author. Half an hour until Books at 12:10 talks about Judith Levine's Not Buying It - to abstain from consumer spending. Her theme occurs in her earlier book Do You Remember Me? - in the context of that book (she relates to her father, who has dementia) the date 9/11/01 arrives, and I think she dated her story to include this event.
"Life in New York," she says over the phone to someone who has mentioned a plane hitting the towers,"Call you tomorrow."
She turns on the tv to see if there is any news report.
"Five tearful hours later..."
Her own personal context and the emergency make her pity herself - she peers into water at a half-dozen bass - the simplicity of their lives seems attractive. "I'm so self-pitying that I envy fish."
........................ Perhaps the book we will read, Not Buying It, evolves from that envy of those fish...................This evening the main Tacoma Reads Together book for 2008 is featured with Vietnam Vets discussing Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried.