Hello dear readers.
My apartment walls are flimsy, so I know my neighbors well. “Am I creepy or am I just conscious?” is a problem that comes up again when certain personal noises seep into the drywall. As long as I don’t actively pursue opportunities for eavesdropping, like standing against a wall and holding a glass to my ear, I think I can claim my innocence. Anyway, it’s a two-way street. Surely my neighbors must have gathered uninvited data about my habits, too. Rephrase the saying: What I don’t know about what they I know you can’t hurt me!
The two novels below led me from a plague-ridden urban dwelling to 1) a country cottage and 2) a country mansion.
happy journey,
—molly
Chris lives in an old cottage on the edge of a moor. The old house is crumbling plaster, the ceiling is very low, and every time you climb the stairs you risk being automatically decapitated. At his 45, he was “fired” from his job. But he’s content with his humble country life and empty calendar, and it’s easy to see why. Chris’ adolescence was filled with enough drama to spice up his season’s worth of reality shows.
One day, an unexpected visitor asks about Chris’ past. Its past includes adultery, divorce, sibling rivalry, artistic triumph and professional despair. A real can of worms. In fact, too many worms. There may be some superfluous plot here, but it’s underpinned by an abundance of keen perception.
Please read: Jane Gardam bursts out the door in a frenzy of excitement, singing Helen Hanff’s “84, Charing Cross Road“
Available from: arrowor check out a library or secondhand bookstore
Mr. Crow is a very lucky man. His mansion has formal gardens, a hedge maze, a croquet lawn and a perfectly square pond. (How? Why?) For dinner, eat gilt-encrusted lobster. (How, why?) Other residents of the house include Eustace, a butler and consigliere, and Clara, a child with an unspecified disability that renders her unable to speak. During a routine night of debauchery, Mr. Crow whips his gun and appears to kill a man on his property, but an examination of the corpse reveals no gunshot wounds. This is not the only mystery!
Drifting between gothic and fantasy, this novel begins with a leisurely trot and progresses to a gallop. This is not a polite way of saying that the book is boring. The first act is simply being meticulous in preparing for the twists and turns that follow.
Please read: David Mitchell, Susannah Clarke, Cryptic (or “English”) crossword puzzles
Available from: tin house
why are you…
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slip intoold masters” If you Love Art/Diatribe and Hate sentiment/paragraph break?
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Tell someone who has eaten “Unscrupulous “Solarization” Sunburn next? (and steal Other Nabokov Phrases while you are doing it. )
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to sigh real infatuation When another word puzzle? As far as I know, the site doesn’t contain instructions on how to play, but you can figure it out.
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