I was so caught up with telling you about the ballerina book last time, that I forgot to mention how my Elizabeth Strout reading was coming.
Would you believe that I had actually read Abide with Me as well? Not only Amy and Isabelle, which I had remembered loving, but also her second novel, too!
Funnily enough, I didn’t recognize Abide with Me for a good stretch into the novel, not until we learn something about the minister’s wife’s habits, and, even then I was content to keep reading because I didn’t remember how it ended.
And, as it turns out, that’s because there isn’t a satin bow wrapped ‘round the story, so it doesn’t really feel like an ending: she tells the story and then she stops telling it, but you have the sense that it’s all still playing out somewhere else, not finished, not over.
That seems perfect to me, for now, and likely for always.
Then I rushed straight into Olive Kitteridge, because I half wondered if I’d not also read that one, and, indeed, I had read some of the stories, when they’d been published in magazines.
One of them I remembered quite clearly, the older married couple in it, and the emotion in the final lines, but I had the idea it was an Alice Munro story and, then, on reading through Munro’s stories a few years ago, was surprised not to find it there.
(Obviously, THAT makes sense now. And I know I don’t need to say any more to you about muddling up stories and authors.)
I’ve also just started Linwood Barclay’s A Noise Downstairs. I’d been going to read The Parting Shot, but I think you actually read that one. I’ll get to it too – I love the idea of going back to Promise Falls for a time – but I wanted to read one this summer that you’d not been able to read.
So, this is his newest. And, as usual, he begins with such an ordinary scene, one that turns into something nearly heart-stopping.
It’s just the kind of mess you can believe someone would fall into, and he’s just so good at making you care that that someone climb out of it. He reminds me so much of Stephen King with this knack.
I’ve sampled a few of the American male suspense writers over the past year – Lee Child, Harlan Coben, and the like – and I think he’s got them all beat.
No argument from you, I know. You’ve got your fan-club paraphernalia on display and you’re probably straightening your T-shirt right this moment!
When I borrowed the ballet novel, I’d picked up another book as well, feeling hopeful, but I didn’t want to mention it until I knew it was something you’d enjoy.
Because, oh my, there is nothing more tiresome than a cat book that doesn’t land. But this one? It’s by Nilanjana Roy and it’s called The Wildings.
And it’s everything that I’d hoped to find in those Warrior Cats books that the girls used to read.
You would love the way that they introduce the character of Mara. And how many of the cats are female (and they don’t have to keep house and sweep out the larder, like the female rabbits in Watership Down either).
And you would love the way that she views the humans from the cats’ perspectives. And how little the humans matter, when it comes to leading their cat lives. And you would love that there is not SO much loss in the story that one can bear to read on.
And I am going to read the sequel, too, not right away, but eventually. And, when I do, I will nod quietly at the parts that you would love. And I will tell you all about it, even if I am not writing you a letter, not here, or not at all. Because I will go on reading with you in mind. Of course I will.
XO
My friend, Barbara – librarian and booklover – died shortly after Christmas. We met via a listserv dedicated to Canadian literature, a serious venture that inspired us to take our enthusiasm offline, where we exchanged proper letters – mostly about books and cats – for about 19 years. In my mind, our bookish conversation is ongoing. (Letter One and Two and Three.)
I have never read The Wildings, but now it is definitely going on my list!
You ended this letter just perfectly. I wondered how you would do it.
Ohhhh, yes! And if you could make the “kids” sit still long enough, it would actually be something they’d all enjoy, I think. 🙂
Admittedly, I knew in choosing July and August, and in selecting four, that it was finite, but I hadn’t figured out the rest myself.
It’s been ages since I read the Wildings, but not surprisingly I really enjoyed it too. LIke you, I distinctly remember loving the cats personalities, and how little us humans mattered to them (which makes total sense!).
This was a really touching letter, and it’s nice to read with friends in mind, it helps us stay connected to them in a special way.
They are really just in their own world, which is obviously shared with “our” kind, but it feels so peripheral. I loved how, in the early scene, you see the ferocity of the older cat, who is intending to “right the order” and suss out the presence which she views as a threat, and how quickly our expectations are overturned: the fierceness, the vulnerability.
These have been such lovely posts. And it’s wonderful to know that you will carry on your dialogue with your friend in your head – those we’ve been close to never really leave us.
Thanks, Kaggsy: I surely will and yes, indeed, they do. And books have a beautiful way of assisting, when it comes to holding memories.
What a touching letter. A wonderful tribute to your friend.
I am eager to read the next in the olive series… I loved the first one and only read it for the first time at the beginning of this year.
I don’t binge-read an author either… I will space them out simply because I have so many other books I’d like to read and I don’t want to get bogged down in one series. But like Rebecca I’ll read 3-4 of an author’s work in a year if I’m particularly smitten. This is mostly with mysteries, of course. Mysteries are like candy to me, only much less caloric, thank goodness.
Thanks, Laila. I can’t recall, do you access ARCs via Netgalley or Edelweiss? I imagine the sequel will be popular on whichever of those sites it lands. I’m happy to wait for November unless a copy lands in my lap! (Because I have other Strouts to read. I was just petting The Burgess Boys in the library today – the next one.) I also can’t remember if I asked you if you’ve seen the limited series of Olive?
If I make a real point of it, and if the author has a tendency to link characters, then there’s nothing like a good reading project. (Like Louise Erdrich or my Jalna series for the past two years. Or good ol’ Mavis.) Because I’m not going to remember details for very long because I’m reading too many books overall. But I’m a dabbler at heart. I love having something for every reading mood in my stack. And I love knowing that the next slough of holds will be a completely different, just as varied, stack. rubs palms
I have not seen the series. There is just too much good television out there, you know?
I do not request ARCs simply because I already have way too many books on my TBR list. 🙂 I don’t want the pressure of feeling I have to review something either.
I know: I love it and try not to let all the possibilities overwhelm (anymore than a TBR list with thousands of items on it does)!
Ah, yes, thank you: I thought that was true and then thought I’d seen you reading something that wasn’t published yet (and now I realize it was probably one of those instances where there are a few months between publications dates, cross-border, and I’d forgotten how that can happen, because so often they’re the same release dates now).
Although I did read from NG at one time (when I first got seriously bitten by the e-book bug and was able to read more comfortably on a screen) I’ve moved away from all that as well (unless I have a paid review to prepare) because I found everything so tempting that I was overlooking my older TBR books completely!
Is that a common thing for you: after loving one book by an author, jumping straight into another? I tend to space things out so as not to find the voice and subject matter too samey (or, if I’ve loved it that much, to save up the pleasure for later), at least by a few months, so three or four is probably the maximum number of books I’d read by an author in a year. But then I always remember Jeanette Winterson saying that she binges on one author, reading all their books in publication order, and then goes on to another and does the same. I suppose it’s a way to experience the whole career in an abbreviated fashion. I’ve been reading Olive Kitteridge off and on for months. I’m experiencing it more as discrete short stories than as a novel — linked short stories can go either way for me.
I find that The Wildings was already on my TBR as of last October. I wonder if I heard about it from you?
The Wildings I have felt confident recommending because a friend who has similar taste in animal stories had said it was rather good, so I might have mentioned it, yes, but I don’t recall for certain one way or the other. It reads very quickly and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have the second at-hand: not a cliff-hanger but some sense of urgency.
When I was a girl, I was a natural binge-reader when I “discovered” an author. And when I “discovered” mystery books as an adult, I re-adopted that. But, otherwise I am laissez-faire about when/how I get to even a very-favouritest author’s books, so that even if the thought occurs to me that I should read someone more devotedly (e.g. David Mitchell), I don’t act on it quickly (it took me two years to read through DM).
Winterson is someone whose thoughts on reading I admire but I didn’t realize this about her: interesting!
Did you know there are some overt links in this one: in that Olive herself appears as the main character more than once (and in other stories too)? Even though I am excruciatingly deliberate with short stories, only one a day, I read this “collection” like a novel because the links were so solid. Have you seen the series?
I was reading one Olive story per week for a while but the story with the hostage situation threw me a bit — I didn’t know Strout got that dark! — and I haven’t picked it up in quite a while now. I hope to finish it within September and I expect I might then go on to the sequel, which I have from NetGalley.
Although I do know what you mean about that story – it took me by surprise as well (which I think was her point – that’s what events do – and she sure got me!) – I feel like she’s actually equal parts dark and light but, tantalizingly, she writes light, so you can miss it if you’d rather not see it in that moment. My first reading of Amy and Isabelle several years ago felt so much lighter for sure. I’m so glad you’re planning to finish it before you read the next set: I’d’ve been sad to think anyone would go into that one only half-knowing what we already know of Olive.
Another lovely letter which ends on such a sweet note! I’m sure you know this already, but there’s a sequel to Olive Kitteridge due out in the autumn, Olive Again.
Thanks for saying so: it was difficult to write this one. And, yes, I was really thinking as much about the Strout sequel as I was thinking about the Roy follow-up. Strout is my current obsession.