I don’t know how I came across it, this book by Jim Rogers called Fup. I think it got mixed up with some of the kids’ books and I pulled it out of the box. I thought at first it might be a kids’ book, a kids’ book about a duck, or an adult book about a duck. The cover lent itself to my assumption.

I opened it and read the inside page. It was an adult book, there was a reference in which parallels were drawn to Ken Kesey’s work. I scanned the first page, and I was hooked. It’s a short book, fiction, well written. It’s about a fellow who, in his 90s, takes on his grandson, whose father was killed in a plane crash, and a mother who fell and hit her head. Grandfather drinks whiskey of his own creation, called “Death Wish.” Grandchild becomes obsessed with putting up fencing, and one day discovers a duckling in a hole by one of the fenceposts.

He surmises the duck was put there by Lockjaw, the pig that killed his 18-year old dog, Boss.

Grandson brings the duck home and tells grandfather he wants to name it Fencepost. Grandfather says Fup, as in Fucking Duck. The duck is enigmatic, she, a mallard hen, eats enormous amounts of food and accompanies grandson in his search for Lockjaw, who he wants to kill.

I could not put this book down, and in fact I wished it was longer. It has good pacing, and humor that’s not over the top. It’s not a book I want to part with, but I am thinking about sending it on to my biographer, Christopher.

This book was on my mind today as I worked on book project administrativa; hence, the title for this dispatch, “Lining Up My Ducks,” because this is what I have been attempting to do. Sometimes little happens, sometimes a lot happens, sometime, like today, there is the expectation that lots is going to happen.

My favorite line in the book is this, this is in reference to Fup’s death and reincarnation after being found in a pig “It just ain’t possible to explain some things, maybe even most things. It’s interesting to wonder on them and do some speculation, but the main thing is you have to accept it-take it for what it is and get on with your getting.”

Yeah, and so here I am, fretting about things not moving fast enough for my liking – I can’t explain the book project’s success. It’s a mystery to me as to why it’s going so well, particularly since I’m bumbling along. Indeed, it is interesting to wonder and speculate, but I have to accept it, take it for what it is and get on with my getting. Advice often comes from unexpected sources. And this is such an instance.

Fup was for me, a very timely read. It may have been otherwise. But that’s a line from a poem by Jane Kenyon.

Next: 349. 12/17/21: One Day to the Next