It's a funny quirk of Pär's that he has no memory whatsoever for keeping facts straight about authors and titles. There is noone with whom I'd rather discuss the contents of a novel, the writing itself and the story and characters and ideas behind and around it. But I've come to just accept that he's never going to care about getting all the names right. Since these are priorities I can live with, I've learned to relax and enjoy them.

Pär has been trying for years to get me to read through an enormous lump of a book called The Stone and the Flute, by Hans Bemmann. Today I finally agreed to read it, on the condition that Pär would read some large fun novel I've been recommending to him for years. I gave him a juicy choice between three hardcovers that happened to sit on the nearest shelf: David Copperfield, Gone with the Wind, or The Bent Twig. He chose the last, knowing what a fond spot that book has held in my heart since I was wee.

"So," I said, "It's a deal. I'll read The Stone and the Flute."

"And I'll read The Bent Twig," he said. He paused for thought, squinting slightly, then came up with a name. "By Barbara Stanwick!"

"Nope."

"No! It's by... "

"Dorothy Canfield."

"Right! Barbara Stanwick wrote..."

"Barbara Stanwick's an actress," I said.

"Aha! And I've seen her in..."

"The Lady Eve and Sorry, Wrong Number."

"Oh, her! Riiight, right. So then Dorothy Canfield is the one who also wrote The Witches."

"No..."

"No! That was John Updike."

'Yes," I said. "The Witches of Eastwick."

"Which you didn't like. Too low-ceiling'ed."

"Right. John Updike. Not to be confused with John Irving," I added, having recently mixed up those two names myself.

"Right," he said. "And not to be confused with whoever wrote that book I read a while ago."

"That book," I said, patiently.

"That book about the crazy girl. And her family. Written by the one who also wrote The Lottery."

"Ah! Shirley Jackson."

"Right! And she's not Dorothy Canfield."

"No, Canfield was a bit earlier. She wrote The Bent Twig just after the turn of the century."

"And she lived in Vermont."

"She actually moved around a fair bit," I said. "She lived in Europe for a while, I think, and..." I noticed Pär's brow furrowing, and amended my statement. "Yes. Dorothy Canfield lived in Vermont."

"Where did Shirley Jackson live?"

"I don't know, but she wrote around the 1940's."

"Which is when Barbara Stanwick did a lot of acting in movies."

"Yes."

"Okay, thanks! That helps a lot."

"I'm glad."