Siri Hustvedt

So I looked up trees and there it was.

this tree split in half one half dead and the other half alive and then i thought is that what you hope that you know you're gonna bloom again and um what happens in grief you know what i've it's been two years since paul died and i've been thinking well you know it's not better i mean i take him back in a second you know but what happens to the embodied being is that

you become more adapted to the absence.

And I mentioned something that, I mean, I was kind of crazy after he died.

And I had what I call cognitive splintering, which is like, my memory was all screwed up.

I had to, I felt I had to nail myself down.

Well, that is much better, fortunately.

So the word is Norwegian and it is mother's mother.

And so I became Momo.

Sophie is his mother, my daughter, our daughter.

And therefore, there's a line of momos that Paul wanted to explain to Miles.

That's why he calls me Momo.

Yes, and also I think...

it doesn't really reproduce our dialogue but I did think of the marriage while I was living it as well as a long dialogue and so by imitating that in the book inserting Paul's actual written voice that made me happy because there's it creates a kind of rhythm of the two people

And he was, you know, deeply attached to, you know, his daughter, his son-in-law.

And then the arrival of this grandson is, you know, what I mentioned in the book, a form of cyclical time of the generations.

And knowing that Miles existed, I think, was a very good

reality for Paul to die with.

I know.

No, well, I think it may be hard for people who have never had this experience.