The Terrazzo Jungle

Stumbled across Malcolm Gladwell's 2004 piece, "The Terrazzo Jungle," from the New Yorker today. I'm not a habitual New Yorker reader, but the subject of this article -- Southdale, the nation's first enclosed shopping mall -- still enthralls. This piece actually helped inspire "Slouching Towards Bensonville," the perennial I'm still working on that one novel.

It is, if I can be so bold, an ambitious book. I've got a few characters fleshed out, but not much of a plot at the moment, which is why this one is on the back-burner for a while. Still, when I read snatches of it, I feel there's something there I've got to keep working on.

It is by far the novel I've researched the most. That might be part of why it's still stalled. "Considering How to Run" took a little research, but it's nowhere in the same league as "Slouching." Why that one got finished in a year and "Slouching" still sits is a mystery. Well, not that much of a mystery. "Considering" is the one I pulled out and worked on, while the other has just sat there. Now both sit there, waiting for me to come along and finish. Maybe re-reading "The Terrazzo Jungle" will help.