How it could have been

What does an author do after retirement? He writes. He can't do anything else. Perhaps he remembers his father's passion for plants and tends to his garden. But mostly he sits at his computer, plowing through his hard drives for diaries and other texts that he once wrote but had completely forgotten, and now, in the maturity of his years, tries to understand everything that happened in his life. Sometimes he laughs at his old clumsy formulations and improves them. If he finds parallels in the literature of Erica Jong, Susan Sonntag or Anais Nin, for example, he may be able to understand his life better in retrospect or even come to terms with what has happened. These are the closing credits to the family chronicle: what could have been. A turbulent kaleidoscope with witty ideas that makes for entertaining reading.