Daughter and I listened to Tessa Hadley: “Cecilia Awakened” on drive up from southern California. I thought it a nice meditation on “being a writer,” as the story leads up to the switch in point of view at the end to the mother. A very small story though: no drama, just an awakening, that most mundane of events, repeated daily, in different ways. Very good comments over at The Mookse and the Gripes:

Now, while on a vacation with her parents, she realizes that being set apart is not necessarily that great. Instead of their superiority, she sees their strangeness. Instead of them possessing the world, she sees they are usurpers, relatively ignorant, with a “puny” interest in art. She sees them as a “type,” and not as wonderful individuals. She realizes this is her as well, and she’s getting a sense of what this means about what’s coming down the pipeline.And so does her mom, which is why the last section, devoted entirely to her mother, is so strong. Through years of experience, her mother is a professional observer. She is not ignorant to what her daughter is feeling, which is why she can imagine it so vividly, even if she has no power to do anything else.