Our heatwave continues. I know for plenty of you it must be really uncomfortable but ne'er a moan will pass my lips after all that winter misery. I'm busy stocking up on Vitamin D and we are mostly living outside...
I hope you are all able to enjoy it in a way that suits you too.
Meanwhile two writers have had my full attention this last few weeks.
Firstly Michael Ondaatje, to whom congratulations for winning the Golden Man Booker 50th for The English Patient, and whose latest novel Warlight proved to be such a wonder that my Reading Friend and I both agree it should be on the Booker longlist, or we'll go without toasted teacakes at our next meeting.
This is a young man's attempt to shed light on the turmoil of war and its impact on his life, and that of his sister, both suddenly and inexplicably separated from their parents, to be left in London in the care of semi-strangers. As Nathaniel looks back on those years from the vantage point of his twenty-eight-year old self the themes of memory, its reliability (or lack of) and loss, permeate what for me was a spell-binder of a novel.
'You return to that earlier time armed with the present and no matter how dark that world was, you do not leave it unlit. You take your adult self with you. It is not to be a reliving, but a rewitnessing.'
Explanations emerge along with Michael Ondaatje's astute and perceptive, and I felt honest (there is no deceit of the reader here) examination of memory. The camouflage and deception rests with the plot and the characters; theirs is the evasion of truth and reality, the distortion of identity...
'We order our lives with barely held stories - as if we have been lost in a confusing landscape, gathering what was visible and unspoken, sewing it all together in order to survive.'
The book is shot through with a form of grief and melancholy, and with it finding a moment to let go.
But I also realised two things...
Firstly that I am an unwitting Michael Ondaatje completist.
I have read and loved each of his books over several decades now. There aren't many authors that can lay claim to that on my shelves, and over the years I have shared thoughts on several of them here. (Anil's Ghost In the Skin of a Lion The Cat's Table Divisadero).
Secondly, how Warlight is arcing across to the shared read of The Rings of Saturn by W.G.Sebald, facilitated by Robert Macfarlane on Twitter through July. There are similar themes among many to consider, especially surrounding war, memory and fallibility, along with the shared landscape of Suffolk (in the second part of Warlight) all adding up to a memorable reading experience.
My notebook is my best friend and filling up with ideas and 'moments' ...
Which reminds me we are long overdue a stationery conversation because I have found the Notebook of My Dreams (more soon) so I'm in reading clover right now.
If you are joining in on Twitter with the Sebald read I would love to know your thoughts...
And how about completist reading, are there any authors that fit that bill for you...
I can certainly add Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood to my list.
Recent Comments