I made my way to the gate and boarded the late train I had taken so many times with F., the two of us drowsy but excited after a night in the city and eager for bed. The black river scrolled past. The mountains on the other side were invisible now; I could only feel their dreaming weight. The Catskills aren’t high as mountains go—geologically speaking, they aren’t even proper mountains but an ancient plateau carved into relief by millions of years of water erosion—but they’re some of the oldest in America. Their original sediments were laid down during the Devonian period, 350 million years ago. Washington Irving calls them “fairy mountains,” foreshadowing the enchantment that propels the plot of his most famous story. Rip Van Winkle may be the only character in American literature to have a bridge named after him. The honor seems all the more anomalous because the story that bears his name is so lightweight. A village loafer, fleeing his scolding wife, wanders into the mountains, where he meets an odd company of men who dress in antiquated clothing and amuse themselves by playing ninepins.
What do You think about Another Insane Devotion (2012)?
