But I did enjoy my trip to Boston during the first week of January, especially the three-hour lunch with my oldest nephew. All three courses. What fun! Fortunately it was a Tuesday, so there was no pressure to eat up and leave the table. The time spent with my nephew was well worth the trip, and as a bonus I also thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with my oldest friend. We met at age 18 and still, the bond endures. How wonderful!
While I was sick, I loved reading the new novel Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict, about the life of the wife of Winston Churchill. Prior to this, I knew very little about her. I thought overall the novel was very well done. My only reservation, and it was minor, was that the ending was abrupt. (The novel concludes right at the end of WWII, abruptly.) I gobbled it up in less than two days, at a time when I couldn't do much else but read.
During this time I also read another 2020 novel, The Tenant, which is the Danish author Katrine Engberg's debut novel. I'm sorry to say that I found it barely mediocre, though I found myself continuing to turn the pages rapidly. But it was not at all memorable, and I don't recommend it. The novel is set in Copenhagen, and there was just a bit of welcome atmosphere there, but not enough to make it worth it.
I'm listening to Uncanny Valley by Anna Weiner, another 2020 publication. According to The New York Times, it's a "literary memoir." I don't agree, not at all, but it is an intriguing account of the author's experience as a New York City expatriate, a former employee in a NYC literary agency gone to dig gold in a Silicon Valley start-up. The author was "old" compared to her fellow employees (she was just 25). At the time she wrote her memoir she was in her early 30s. I'm halfway through at this point, so...take whatever I say with a grain of salt.
I must investigate Lady Clementine as I have a passing interest in Winston Churchill. He spent a lot of time in the south of France and I was intrigued to learn that Clemmie loathed it so much there that she wouldn't go with him. Would love to learn more about her. I have a massive volume of Winston and Clemmie's letters to each oter too. Looking at the size of it I'm guessing they wrote to each other every single day!
ReplyDeleteHi Cath,
DeleteOh, I would love to read the letters!! Marie Benedict based a great deal of her novel on the letters and a few bios. I think if you do read this one, it will send you deep into the volume of letters. Very interesting!
Next time you are in Boston please make time for tea with me! That would be so much fun.
ReplyDeleteOh, how I'd love to take tea with you! Thanks for the suggestion! I hope to meet up with my nephew in a couple of months. I will be in touch! Thanks.
DeleteI'm glad that you're feeling better now Judith, and that your trip to Boston was such a success.
ReplyDeleteHi Katrina,
DeleteAs of tonight, feeling better slowly and impatiently. And yes, I'm so glad the trip worked out so well. But Boston is the most exhausting city! Fun, but crazy.
It sounds like such an interesting read. I love Winston Churchill!
ReplyDeleteI believe you live in a more January-friendly area than I do, with lots of snow and I suspect more sunny days. Right now, in the Pacific Northwest, it is POURING rain and everything is damp, cold, wet and yucky. I'm so looking forward to spring already!
Hi Cleo,
DeleteI thoroughly concur that January is a much nicer month here than on your coast. Unlike November and December, we start to have at least some sunny days. And, of course, there's some snow, and winter sports beckon. More snow will be due to arrive in February and March, typically. I would be complaining a great deal if I had your weather.
Lady Clementine sounds like something I would like to read. With novels about real people I always wonder how much is invented and how much is true. But Churchill wife's was such an interesting person I would be willing to risk it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see you back.
In this case, the author had a huge volume of letters and biographies to back up her novel. So I think that this novel reveals a great deal about Churchill's wife, and also an enormous amount about her war efforts in WWI and WWII. I did appreciate in addition all the parts about their family life. Clementine felt that she was an inadequate mother, and this was true for her, but her efforts to support the work of women was so laudable and interesting.
DeleteThat sounds like it would be perfect, Judith. I am going to hold off until it goes down in price though.
DeleteYour trip to Boston sounded like a fabulous double-header considering you got to spend time with your nephew and a friend. January flew by and it took me a while to get over the holiday hoopla but, I think I got me groove back!
ReplyDeleteDiane,
DeleteYes, it was a fantastic double-header and I hope to do it again in the relatively near future. It's funny--I really hate to travel to Boston during the influenza season, but I hate to wait until April to visit again. Ach!
Your holidays are very, very busy, and all my friends who have grandchildren and/or large families find themselves in recovery during the first half of January! So glad you're feeling your oats back now, though.