Secret Alley Ways and Bookland
Today I finished two great books. I finished two books in one day not because I am a super fast reader but because one book I was listening to and the other I was reading the old-fashioned way. Sometimes after finishing an especially interesting book, I feel this sort of mild depression when I'm done. I already miss the book and feel sad that it is over! Part of me is still in Bookland. It is like the song, 'I left my Heart in San Francisco' except I left my heart in Bookland. It is a feeling that I imagine that either the French or German have a word for. Maybe there is a word for it in English too and I just have not heard it yet. Anyway, I'm experiencing that times two. The book I listened to is called 'A Pale View of Hills' by Kazuo Ishiguro. What an amazing book! I've read two other books by Ishiguro- 'Never Let me Go' and 'The Artist in a Floating World.' All three books take place partly in the main characters present and partly in the characters past. Lots of books do this, but there is something about Ishiguro's prose that depict memory in such a realistic way. The descriptions of the characters memories feel the way that memories actually do- transient and dreamlike but anchored in a known reality. 'A Pale View of Hills' seemed like a simple book about a woman remembering her past but every now and then we get hints of something unsaid and unexplained that gives the book a subtle feel of eeriness I don't want to give too much away about this book, but I will say that when I finished my brain felt rattled and unsettled.
The other book I finished is called 'Lasting Damage' and it is the sixth in a series by the mystery writer Sophie Hannah. The worst thing about finishing this book is that the seventh book in the series will not be available to U.S. readers until spring! I'm quite sad about this and I now need a new amazing mystery series to enjoy and ponder. I like this series because there are plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing. I also like Hannah's two mystery solvers- Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer. Both of them are odd, interesting and redeemably flawed. I'm going to miss these two until spring when I will finally get to read about their investigative adventures again.