Acquisitions, August 29-September 4

I only bought a couple of items for use in class, this week. I can't buy much for myself until I see a paycheck from the new job -- and probably well beyond that; the cross-country move wiped me out financially. I fear that in the New America, you have to pay dearly simply to have a job at all. I don't know what I would have done this year if I hadn't had savings and hadn't gotten a generous severance package: I might have found a new job but been unable to take it. Even simply looking for a job cost me in the thousands of dollars, and the relocation cost many thousands more, all of it unreimbursed. There is a tax benefit due to me next year because of the job search and relocation adjustments the IRS permits (thank heaven), but future tax benefit is not a substitute for needed cash-in-hand. On that front, I just squeaked by.

• Georges Perec, A Void (tr. Gilbert Adair) (Harvill hc) (Amazon)
  
• Don Chaffey, Jason and the Argonauts (Columbia DVD) (Barnes & Noble)