Be Near Me

A month or so ago I finished reading this latest offering by Andrew O’Hagan, reviewed very favorably by Claire Messud in this week’s New York Review of Books. Like Messud, I found this story of a man so very much a stranger to himself deeply moving, subtle, and emotionally rich. Here's a nice quote:

“The world is rowdy and nothing is certain. Do not stray. None of us was meant to face the day and the night alone, though that is what we do and memory now is a place of fading togetherness. Be near me. True love is what God intends.”

The title is taken from this:

"Be near me when my light is low,
When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick
And tingle; and the heart is sick,
And all the wheels of Being slow.

Be near me when the sensuous frame
Is racked with pangs that conquer trust;
And Time, a maniac scattering dust,
And Life, a Fury slinging flame.

Be near me when my faith is dry,
And men the flies of latter spring,
That lay their eggs, and sting and sing
And weave their petty cells and die.

Be near me when I fade away,
To point the term of human strife,
And on the low dark verge of life
The twilight of eternal day."

Lord Alfred Tennyson “In Memoriam A.H.H”