OK, I rolled my eyes when someone wrote me about this encoded message business, but reading the last graph of Libby's letter to Miller over at the next hurrah, I am almost ready to get out the tinfoil:

You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover--Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work--and life.

Kind of strange, huh? But now I remember flipping through Libby's novel several months ago, set in Japan, the same sort of tone and haiku imagery. Here's the first chapter, so you can see for yourself:

...The apprentice, who came from a village farther north, had arrived only that fall, before the deep winter snows had buried the inn halfway to its eaves...

Turning from the sink, the youth saw the woman Matsuko just leaving the kitchen with a tray of sake for guests. As she closed the door behind her, he caught a glimpse of the dim glow from the firepit...

"The lacquer has cracked," she said. The crack and its shadow ran along the edge of the tray...

Not exactly made for Hollywood. All I'm saying is, the novel suggests, this is just how the guys writes! Which may explain why he works in policy. My friend and occasional co-writer Jeet Heer has written about Libby's "Zen-like" novel, here.

Update: Mickey Kaus is on the case.

Posted by Laura at October 1, 2005 05:55 PM