So, if you are like me, you can probably answer this question quickly--almost without even thinking about it too hard. Which book or author do you constantly 'mean to read', she or he is in the back of your mind and probably the book is sitting there right in reach, but you never do? Well, for me, and for a long time (I actually have quite a long list of books and authors--many of them sit on one particular shelf in my bookroom) the book in question has been Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child.
I have wanted to read the book since it first came out. I put it off until it came out in paperback, being a healthy sized tome of over 500 pages. The paperback came out in 2012! And here it is 2016. A mere Four Years have passed. Granted the desire to read it seems to have gained momentum in the last year or so. I cannot tell you how many times I have put it on mental lists of 'must read this this year' books or felt the urge to just go and pick it up and start reading. You know how it goes--the time just needs to be right. Forget that you might check out something from the library and the interloper just gets to cut right in line no questions asked and no excuses made.
So, yesterday I decided it was time. Alan Hollinghurst is getting his day finally. It was just sitting there in a pile next to my bed and I reached for it and started reading. And I discovered that it is indeed as good as I was hoping, so I just kept on reading. I do this all the time--pick up a book on a whim and start reading and all of a sudden it gets a prime spot in my bookbag. I need to do this more often. If I am really lusting after a particular book--just read it. Okay, maybe not if the night stand is beginning to groan under the weight of too many books, but as you can see my nightstand has a healthy pile, but I think it will be manageable.
I'm not too far into the story yet, but I think I will make steady progress on it. It begins in 1913 when Cecil Valance, a poet, is brought home to meet the family of his good friend George Sawle. Things are going to happen on this fateful weekend, which will be looked back upon and reinterpreted and I am going to enjoy every minute of it. My teaser is an exchange between Cecil and Jonah, who is one of the Sawle's servants. I get the feeling the family is middle class, but higher end middle class. They don't have valets, but Jonah steps in as Cecil obviously is used to a certain lifestyle.
"Cecil smiled vaguely, as if he'd forgotten the question by the time it was answered, and said, 'Funny little room, isn't it.' Since Jonah didn't answer, he added, 'Rather charming, though, rather charming,' with his yap of a laugh. Jonah had the strange of being intimate with someone who was simultaneously unaware of him. In a way it was what you looked for, as a servant."
I thought that was such a good observation and wonderful description. In those few sentences you get a feel for the characters and place. 1913. We all know what's coming. The story covers many years, maybe even more than one lifetime for these characters. It's such a happy feeling picking up a book that you've long looked forward to! I need this since January is such a long, bleak month.