The same thing has happened to Charles Dickens's Little Dorrit, which I was halfway through before I had to put it down out of a fatal combination of fatigue and irritation; I don't think I can pick it up again.When I think about delving back into Little Dorrit, I feel a great deal of anxiety as well as a deep desire to punch each member of that entire family dead in the face. So, I think I need to find a nicer way back into the Victorians and just let it go.
If I seem quite glum this week, I am, but I'm sure it won't last. I'm reading a fantastically good book (Gaudy Night) and have some other fantastically good stuff I have completed (Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard; the "The Country" section of William Faulkner's Collected Stories) and want to write about.
In the meantime, perhaps I should go back to Te Aro for another beautiful coffee...
4 comments:
Hey, neat! I like the "insistently literary" bit among many other things. Should I call you the Girl with the Dragon Coffee? You should definitely go get another one. Hope your week shapes up nicely. Cheers, K
I'm sorry that the stresses keep rearing their ugly heads. It's awful how one book, or two, can trigger a memory of that difficult time. Best let them lie for awhile, and pick up what's soothing to you. Blessings, B.
A beautifully written and thought-provoking review Coleen! Thanks for sharing something so difficult to complete. I have a quick question, not having read the book, was the author also trying to invoke the shadow of Lolita—the mother and daughter with a rooming house, Nabokov being Russian, police intervention, death of a pervert?
Also, when you go, grab me one of those coffees, they look amazing...
interpolation: When I get over this nasty cold or flu I've got, I'll certainly go get more dragon coffee.
Bellezza: Yes, and nothing says comfort to me like Ellis Peters. I'm 100+ pages into the 11th Brother Cafael mystery.
andrew: That's a great question. It's been so long since I read Lolita, that I'd have to go back to be sure - but it sounds like a possible source, based on what you say here.
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