A while back, I compiled a list of gifts that Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith gave to one another in Just Kids. I often find myself gravitating towards the gift described in memoirs or books; authors, I’ve noticed, tend to include them as details when they are particularly special or poignant. Case in point: Jeannie Vanasco’s upcoming memoir The Glass Eye. It’s not as long as the Smith-Mapplethorpe one, but I still love it (and admittedly it might be longer, as I didn’t do an exhaustive search).
Gifts Received by Jeannie Vanasco in The Glass Eye (different givers)
A small doll from Sicily
colorful barettes
old coins
hangers with illustrated wooden cat heads
vials of sand from Jerusalem
a pair of earrings that looked like pale orange pearls
Twenty books (in one package)
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