MOI'S BRILLIANT MASK SLIPS

First and foremost, I thank Allen Gaborro for his (too-generous) review of The Light Sang As It Left Your Eyes in the latest issue of Philippine News. Really -- thank you. ENTIRE REVIEW HERE -- and I do suggest you read it since it's quite flattering to Moi.

The problem is that I learned of his review through a Listserve email that I first read on my Iphone, as I was seated at the dining table entertaining some out-of-town guests, Fred and Lisa, who inflicted themselves on me and Galatea this weekend. So I thought, as the conversation was flagging anyway as it often does with Fred, I'd read the review out loud to the company even as I read it for the first time. Well, the review begins:

I once had a college classmate who was so exceptional as a student that our professor exclaimed, with tongue-in-cheek, that she could submit a paper with absolutely nothing written on it and still receive the highest grade.

Okay....undoubtedly, it was the fact that I was on my fourth bottle of wine but I just couldn't understand this opening sentence. I kept reading and re-reading it out loud, even as I kept asking our friends, "But what does it mean...?"

Finally, my long-suffering hubby sighed and noted, "Eileen. The reviewer is saying, You're brilliant."

At which point, Fred or some other drunk at the table snorted -- "Yeah...she's being called brilliant but she doesn't get that this reviewer is calling her brilliant. Ironic or what?"

From there, the weekend continued -- and still continues since the New Yorkers still won't leave my house -- to deteriorate...