In the High Peaks
















Sunday, June 14, 2020

Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times #13

One of the bookcases in my bedroom (the very tall oak one) is very well-organized by author, by theme, by genre. The other bookcase, an older painted pine bookcase, is home to loads of books but is a haphazard mish-mash, in some ways, especially the bottom shelf. Today's books are from that shelf. And I found numerous treasures there that I haven't read.

I've been meaning to read C.J. Sansom's Winter in Madrid for at least ten years now. I own a very fine hardcover copy that I picked up at a library book sale. I know lots of you have read Sansom in the past, though I never have.  This one is a standalone and it received high praise everywhere it was published (UK 2007,  US 2008 and elsewhere).  The book begins in September 1940, after the Spanish Civil War is over and as Hitler's Wehrmacht is sweeping its way across Europe.
According to one reviewer, Sansom compellingly mixes elements of several genres: thriller, romance, and historical fiction. The main character Harry Brett has suffered trauma from his experiences at Dunkirk, and is now "a reluctant spy" for the British Secret Service.
Many critics noted that the Madrid setting is as important as a character. That is enough to send me reading this book in the very near future. I'd love to travel to Madrid in Winter 1940. And as the heat returns to our neighborhood later this week, a wintry setting will be luscious. Madrid is at a much higher elevation than most of the major cities in Spain, and has a different climate as a result.

I also discovered that Sansom received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Birmingham (UK). I'm very interested to know that, and will look forward to this one and to others of his. Do you have any C.J. Sansom novels that you would recommend?

I've never read Kathleen Norris's The Virgin of Bennington, which is a memoir of the author's years spent studying at the experimental, artsy, so-called "bohemian" southern Vermont college in the late 1960s. It was there, where she totally did not fit in, that she was inspired to begin her career as a poet and writer. I've always wanted to read it, as another testament of the late 1960s, from a college student's point of view.

Yet it seems like a lifetime ago that I was immersed in Kathleen Norris's best-selling The Cloister Walk. Published in 1996, I was indeed living a completely different life than the one I lead now. It is astounding to think how totally different, so much so that I think it is no wonder that I don't recall much about The Cloister Walk, a memoir, other than  I found her retreat to a contemplative life fascinating and understandable. In this memoir, Norris, a married woman and a Protestant, spent months participating fully in a monastery in Minnesota.  Do any of you remember The Cloister Walk?

Unfortunately, I was going to write about The Letters of Edith Wharton by R.W.B. Lewis and Nancy Lewis (1988), and I was not impressed by the volume. I did a search and it appears that this is the only published edition of Wharton's letters, and part of what bothers me is that it was heavily selective. Evidently, numerous letters exist from her youth and young adulthood, but they are not available in any edition. What a shame! They are supposed to be enormously informative about her development as a writer. Fortunately Wharton did publish an autobiography in 1934, which helps somewhat. In any case, his volume was a huge disappointment to me. Wish I had better news to impart!

16 comments:

  1. I just discovered C.J. Sansom last year when I read the first in the Shardlake series. I thought it was very good and bought the next three books in the series at the book sale. I have heard of Winter in Madrid, but I cannot remember much else.

    I don't know anything about Kathleen Norris at all. I have never read anything by Edith Wharton but I plan to find something of hers to read. What do you suggest?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tracy,
      I'm so interested to know that you liked the first novel in the Shardlake series. I'm taking note of that! I started Winter in Madrid today. Looking good.
      Edith Wharton: I've read Age of Innocence and The House of Mirth. I enjoyed reading both, but The House of Mirth was more compelling--though not a "happy" tale, it deserves every attribute that makes it a classic. I'm very, very glad I read it. Even as the main character makes mistake after mistake, I found, to Wharton's credit, that I identified with her and felt her struggles to succeed and her pain.

      Delete
  2. Both books by Kathleen Norris sound intriguing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, they are indeed! Kathleen Norris finds the spiritual in the everyday. And she is a wonderful, thoughtful writer, I've found.

      Delete
  3. Winter in Madrid has been on my TBR for about the same length of time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guess what, Marg! I dug into Winter in Madrid late this afternoon. Am enjoying so far. Why, oh why did I wait so long?

      Delete
  4. Bennington College had quite the reputation in early 70s when I was of college age. (I'd be curious about the Norris book).

    Hope this week will be a good one for you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Diane,
      Yes, absolutely!!
      And to think that my freshman year of college I attended a college just to the north, up Route 7--Middlebury. I think we attended college the same years, as I recall.
      Anyway, I transferred from Midd because I couldn't handle the misogyny there. And I was bored. Made some lifelong friends, but.
      I'm curious about the Bennington book, too.
      I recall that when I mentioned various colleges to my mother, I noted that Bennington seemed interesting. (Middlebury was my mother's, and two of her sisters' alma mater), and boy, did she squash that dead! Interestingly, it was a class issue. Upper-class women went to Bennington back in her day, and we were not that, for gosh sake! That seemed to be it.
      And Diane, I hope you will have a wonderful week as well!

      Delete
  5. I gave my mother the first CJ Sansom book but the only one have read was Dominion, which was one of those books that was clever but full of characters I disliked. I should give him another try.

    I do remember Cloister Walk very well. I think I skimmed rather than read it, but every publisher tried to copy its success. I recall one wannabe that was quite interesting was Walking the Sacred Path, about a labyrinth in San Francisco. Well, everyone likes a good labyrinth, don't they?

    I liked Middlebury a lot although I was such a hockey fanatic in those days it was the only college I applied to that didn't have Division I hockey. My mother's college roommate briefly ran the study abroad in France so that appealed to me. When we visited in 7/77 everyone was doing language immersion in preparation for studying abroad so we kept hearing different languages as we walked around. But ultimately I figured that I didn't ski and don't like cold weather so it wasn't the right place for me. I definitely would not have liked the misogyny either! But such a charming campus.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How interesting to hear about your experiences visiting Middlebury! I hope you ended up at a college that better suited you. I certainly did, lucky for me.
      Also interesting your thoughts on the Sansom novel you read. I'll see where I go with Winter in Madrid.

      Delete
  6. Hi Judith, just to let you know why I haven't been around answering blog comments or blogging. Peter was admitted to hospital on Saturday afternoon with suspected pneumonia. They've found that he has fluid in the cavities between the lungs but they don't know what that fluid is. It could be ordinary 'stuff' (whatever that would be) or blood. He was doing something very strenuous in the garden in the week and they're wondering if he might have burst a blood vessel. They can't do anything for 5 days because although he's tested negative for Covid-19 they need to wait just in case he does develop it, apparently they've lost people because of this. So all we can do now is wait until they can act and in the meantime they're dosing him with antibiotics and he's feeling and sounding a lot better. I'll be leaving a brief note on my blog as I'm going to take a blogging break for a couple of weeks. Just thought I'd let you know what's going on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Cath! Thank you for letting me in on this--. What a shock, really, it must be for you. Exertion in the garden and then pneumonia--very, very worrying. Oh, gosh, Cath, my thoughts are with you--always! I feel we've gotten to know each other, and I wish I were nearby to make you a cup of tea and provide you a meal upon your return from hospital. If only!!
      I am so glad that he's sounding better--what a good sign! I'll pray for his continued improvement. Please, please, do nurture yourself and get plenty of sleep, please. You will be missed. Take care!

      Delete
  7. Yes, quite a shock all round really. I'm still not quite able to get my head around it. He's doing ok, cheerful, rather fed up with the situation obviously because all he can really do is sit and wait for Monday. Luckily he's a reader like all of us and took his Nook in with him.

    Oh gosh yes, how lovely it would be to sit and chat with you over a cup of tea, that would be such a comfort. I can't actually visit him at the hospital because of Covid restrictions, no visitors allowed in any hospital in the UK. We did pop over yesterday to send in clean clothes (he just went in with an overnight bag) but couldn't see him of course. My youngest daughter's been a real star during this crisis so I have support. Yes, I'll look after myself, I've retreated into books and the garden but as it's decided to rain today I'm indoors and catching up on online bits. I'll keep in touch anyway and thank you *so* much for your concern. xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How wonderful to be surrounded by your youngest daughter's support--and how great for her, too, to be a team with you. Still thinking about you, and knowing just a bit of what you might be feeling. I remember how bewildered I was when Ken came down with acute, severe MS symptoms. Absolutely bewildered. We were in the Adirondacks, on vacation, before we ever decided to move here. An hour to the nearest hospital, then they suggested we rush him back home to Boston. And I can remember thinking "How can this be happening?" What is this? It was bewildering at first until good doctors took over and explained everything.
      It is so good Cath, that you are one of those people (like all of us book bloggers) who can attain a bit of respite from books and from gardens and nature.

      Delete
    2. Just catching up Cath - you've answered the question I asked on your blog -so I see you can't visit your husband! I'm so sorry. Best wishes.

      Delete
    3. Judith, I'm catching up with blog posts. I loved Winter in Madrid and The Cloister Walk too such a lovely book. I'd borrowed it from the library and meant to get a copy to re-read it. I must look out for it!

      Delete