LA mornings, cross-country questions, and elections

by Jami Attenberg

I’m in LA right now at the home of Neal, Regina, and Elijah Pollack, surrounded by two adorable dogs. Elijah's watching a Curious George cartoon, and Regina keeps offering me various breakfast items. (I finally took her up on the yogurt and fruit smoothie.) I'm still recovering from last night's readings at Book Soup and the Vermin on the Mount reading series. I think the smoothie is probably going to do the trick.

I've been one tired cookie for five days now. (I’m on tour for my new novel, The Kept Man, which I will be reading from at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Friday night at 7 PM, and I hope to see you all there.) But LA has restored me a bit. It has been shockingly beautiful weather in Los Angeles, and I drove around all day with a big smile on my face yesterday. It was slightly corrupted by the end – after all, I was driving in LA – but after the craptastic weather on the East Coast, I’m pretty thrilled to be out here.

One of the things that’s fascinating about traveling the country – I’ve been in Boston, Chicago, and New York in the last few days – is watching for emerging themes in discussions along the way. Like I really want to know what America is thinking about right now, and this is a great way to do that.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with people about the election along the way. It seems like people are pretty amused/terrified by Huckabee, and see Romney as even scarier because he actually comes off as kind of normal. I think people would not object to McCain as a candidate. It’s a big toss-up between Barack and Hillary, but I have met a few people who are terribly passionate between Barack, and no one who is overwhelmingly enthusiastic about Hillary. Like if they say they’re going to vote for her, it’s always something like: “I suppose I should vote for her, right?”

Don’t ask me which candidate I’m voting for. I still haven’t decided yet. I’m waiting for someone to win me over too!

I’ll be back tomorrow with another post about my travels across the U.S.