Promising

Not having a TV and living a comparatively solitary life in a small village, books tend to be important to us. I found myself ‘bookless’ and in the middle of a bus strike without a car, so could not get to the library to replenish our stores.

But now I have a new book in my hands, ‘Changing Light’, by Nora Gallagher.  Here is an excerpt:

Einstein was sitting on a small screened-in porch crowded with old summer cottage furniture: wicker chairs with flaking white paint, a table with a water glass on it, an old canvas deck chair, three croquet mallets leaning against a wall in the corner. The floorboards had been painted white. The water of the sound could be seen through the grid of the screens. He was as Leo remembered him: a huge head, furrowed forehead, wisps of white hair, deep brown playful eyes…… 

The first page also has this kind of precise cadence, and I was not only drawn in by the images, but by the inherent sense of order contained in the rhythm of the writing. I also felt trust, asif I were in competent and compassionate hands. After only a few lines, I felt myself calmed by the clarity of the writing, and settled in for a good read.

It is about painting,
             and the atom bomb. 

On the back another favorite author, Annie Dillard writes, ‘At last a novel about something…’.

I’m looking forward to it.