Choosing a new book should not be the agonizing choice that I make it out to be. Do you find it so as well? Of course it is worth all the hemming and hawing when you begin reading and find that yes, this is just the right book to suit your desires. And that is the case with me and Anthony Quinn's Half of the Human Race. It may well be the perfect choice after the fact, but it was an unlikely contender and won out by default.
Here's my circuitous thinking. I wanted this to be simple and easy and just think a bit about the books that so often come to mind when choosing a new read that end up always getting passed by. Nothing to stress out over or to overthink. Just a quick--what comes to mind first. We shall call them the bridesmaids of the reading world (at least my own little reading world). You know . . . always a bridesmaid but never a bride--oft thought of but never chosen. The obvious choice for me was Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child with Natsuo Kirino's Grotesque coming in a very close second (many others crossed my mind but I won't bore you with all the minutiae of my thinking).
Then I made the very big mistake of looking up reviews on Amazon. It was meant to be less a search for reviews than a quick--once again . . . what's this story about. I will never learn. I got sucked into reading other people's opinions. Now valid as they are, I don't know the reviewer and their tastes might well be polar opposites of my own, so I really try and avoid them. I don't mind knowing what a friend, whose tastes I am familiar with, thinks of a book. I can more easily gage if it is something I will like, or not. But I read them and began doubting myself and poor Alan Hollinghurst. I'm sorry--relegated once more to bridesmaid status. So then I thought the Kirino would fit in nicely with my summer mystery reading. And then I begin reading how the English translation has been censored with a different ending, and the story is bleak and violent and well, even though it went in my bookbag and I dragged it with me to the gym on Sunday, I let myself be swayed once again.
So, more pondering and then a little peek at my bedside piles (as those are the books I think I most want to read sooner than later). Ah yes, the Quinn. I even bought it when it was in hardcover, so thrilled with the idea of the story when I first read about it. Anxiously waited for it's arrival, happily opened the package and surely browsed the story and longingly held it and then, yes, sadly it went into the bedside pile. That was, oh, back in 2011. But I have started reading and fell into the story so easily I now wonder why ever did I wait so long?
Set in the summer of 1911 it is a story of love, of cricket, of suffragettes--with a heroine who speaks her mind. Check off the list all those things I love reading about. This is a 'will they, won't they' love story, but I think it is more than just that--a story of an unconventional woman with dreams of an independent life born into a very conventional and conservative society when women were more ornament than partners. Connie Callaway is our heroine and my teaser is a description of her:
"Opinion was divided as to whether Connie Callaway was a beauty. Somewhat gawky, and taller than she would have liked, she carried herself with a certain hesitancy, as if reluctant to be noticed. From her father she had inherited a strong jawline that looked at a certain angle almost masculine; yet this severity was counterpointed by an expressive mouth, delicately fluted nose, and eyes of liquid brown that glittered when she laughed, bewitching even those--not a few--who considered her 'odd-looking'."
Why does reading about a heroine who is 'odd-looking' give me heart? Because she is also intelligent and well spoken. Quinn's writing is smart and the dialogue is sparkling. It may not have been my very first choice, but it's definitely the right choice. I really must do this more often. As for the Hollinghurst and Kirino . . . no worries, eventually every book gets its day.