At the end of the week, I’m heading out to New York State. We’ve sold our house there and I am charged with getting it ready for the movers. This is going to be rich, nostalgic, demanding work: going through old photos and our kids’ archives, and mine, and our huge book collection, trying to get it down to a manageable poundage. My wife, Paula, and I have been joking that this is a version of what we believe the Swedes call a “death cleaning” - trying to tidy things up so as not to burden the kids. We’ll also be leaving behind a house we love dearly, the place where I wrote Tenth of December and Lincoln in the Bardo and a good chunk of this one that’s coming out in October, Liberation Day.
But…it’s time.