Recent Reads

Crossing To Safety by Wallace Stegner

The ""high life, the conspicuous waste, the violence, the kinky sex, [and] the death wish" are not in this book.  It is about everyday life, friendship, tragedy, mistakes and simple joys.  I loved Stegner's writing.  It is poignant and simple and he talks about friendship and relationships in a way I relate to.  I loved how real and honest the characters felt- their imperfections and stolen moments of grace.  The only downside to the book was that there were a few thin spots.  Important eras of the main characters' lives and relationships were glossed over, even when they were pivotal to the plot.  I kept wondering when Stegner would fill us in but he never did.

The story follows two young  married couples from their first meeting through their lives up until the death of one of the wives. Stegner says the two couples "meet in Madison, and are at once drawn together, braided and plaited into a friendship.  It is a relationship that has no formal shape, there are no rules or obligations or bonds as in marriage or the family, it is held together by neither law nor property nor blood, there is no glue in it bu mutual liking."


I especially loved the relationship between the two women.  There is something about a truly wonderful friendship that can stand the test of time and distance that is almost miraculous. "But Charity and Sally are stitched together with a thousand threads of feeling and shared experience.  Each is for the other that one unfailingly understanding and sympathetic fellow-creature that everybody wishes for and many never find."


I will definitely be reading more of Wallace Stegner's writing in the future.

The Elegance of A Hedgehog

by Muriel Barbery, Alison Anderson (Translator)

I saw the film (in French with subtitles) last month on a strange day for me. I had been dwelling on dark events and the movie preyed on that. Perhaps the strange feelings of seeing the movie followed me into the book.  The whole concept threw me for a loop a little. It was well written but I didn't enjoy it as much as I was told I would.   I can't shake the feeling so I don't feel I can review it properly.