Water & Earth: A Journal (1971-76)

I read diaries and journals voraciously and I loved this one! It's written by a 30 something guy in NYC in the mid 70's. He tends to sit down at his typewriter and just type and type and type and type and when he's got nothing to say he doesn't stop - he just keeps going and the most amazing things come out - from contemplation of sharing his apartment with cockroaches to generations hitting the shore of life like ocean waves hitting the beach - just rolling in and crashing onto the shore generation after generation after generation. From thoughts on why his cat hates his typewriter, how a sunset looks through the windows of another NYC building that he can see from his window, to the tea he continually keeps by his side even though it always goes cold before he drinks it. His style is wonderful (he's become one of my favorite journal writers!) His work is so immediate and slapdash and chaotic and thoughtful and real, which is how I percieve life to be - all right there on the surface AND at the subterrainian levels. Definitely one of the best diaries published in recent years.