P.K. Page.  I'm reading her poetry at the moment and it is like being doused in ice water (in a good way)!  Like waking up to a crackle-snow morning in January when everything is frozen to perfection.  Senses fully awake, imagination engaged, and the world magical once again.  That's what it's like to immerse oneself in a Page collection for an afternoon.    


And then I found this NFB film online about Page.


A P.K. Page day isn't a bad day at all.


Some Page poetry can be found here.

Since taking this picture (our new neighbourhood is just full of lovely little areas to walk), the leaves have all fled . . .  or in the process of fleeing along gutters, swirling across the road, swept up by tires and the wind.  I love this time of year, the transition between fall and winter.  November is a great month for walks and much musing. And reading.  

I'm still in the midst of War of Peace.  I've reached Natasha's first ball, and Prince Andrew's increasing fascination with her (and his decreasing interest in things political).  Glorious writing. I sometimes wonder how any of us have the nerve to pick up a pen or punch away at the keyboard after Tolstoy.  He had such an uncanny awareness of the way people work.  Each character is unique and yet completely realized.

I picked up another book at the library last night:  Trudy Morgan-Cole's The Violent Friendship of Esther Johnson.  I've been wanting to read this for some time now and was excited that they had a copy available to lend.  I've enjoyed every Morgan-Cole novel I've read thus far, especially By the Rivers of Brooklyn, and I'm looking forward to enjoying this one. Perhaps I'll indulge tomorrow while sipping on some lavender tea Mr. Inkslinger was nice enough to bring home to me.

Reading/Viewing Notes:Currently and Recently

How did it arrive at mid-November already? The sky looks winter this morning (clouds all quilted up), and it feels like a good day to snuggle down with some tea and story.  Or maybe a good day to catch up on some blog-reading and post-writing.

Currently Reading (or, even more precisely, Imagination Fully Engaged With): War and Peace by Tolstoy.  It took me a bit to become fully immersed in this world of Rostovs and Bolkonskys, but once Tolstoy's characters begin to inhabit one's imagination, they just settle in for the duration.  How I squirm with Pierre over his awkwardness . . . how I cheer the lisping Denisov when he robs for the good of his men!  


I'm also enjoying Murdoch's The Green Knight though I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it before I am required to return it to the library (and I haven't even been able to start on Pym's Jane and Prudence! Alas!!). Perhaps I'll just renew the books? Yes, sounds like a plan.


Recently Acquired:  A mix of fascinating books. I made the (for me) mistake of going to a university book sale and purchased some Christmas presents . . . and, inevitably, a few books for the home library (and when I've been trying to be frugal, too!).


The books bought at the uni book sale for ye olde family library: Kathleen Kent's The Heretic's Daughter, Joyland by Emily Schultz, The Taming of the Wild Field by Willard Sunderland (about the Russian steppes), and Irving Howe's World of Our Fathers. 


Other purchases (which may include a Christmas present):  We Two  by Gillian Gill (about Victoria and 'dearest' Albert), The Final Act of Mr. Shakespeare by Robert Winder.  

And I was fortunate enough to be given a copy of Alissa York's Fauna, which sounds fascinating.


Recently Watched and Enjoyed: The Ghostwriter.  Other than the great acting of Ewan McGregor, what strikes one immediately is the look of the film.  Grey, stormy, landscape as metaphor for futility in which rain plays a big part (a theme of last week, really), character isolated on an island.  {And I have to say that I really liked the office McGregor's character starts work in, with its big picture window to the tempestuous seascape.}


A suspense film -- shadowy motivations, something not right in the air -- and McGregor does a great job as ghostwriter to a controversial prime minister's memoirs.  Only he gets more than he signed up for, of course.  It starts slow, with much mysterious hostility directed at the ghostwriter.  And lots of shady-looking people.  A great political suspense thriller obviously inspired by real life political machinations -- lies, terrorism, secret agendas, conspiracies, ethical dilemmas on the part of those involved, etc.


About To Indulge In:  A large hot fudge sundae (if one is going for a hot fudge sundae, it might as well be large! :).

Curiosity by Joan Thomas: The Review

Another novel about Mary Anning.  Yes. But so much better than Tracy Chevalier's.  Now that's not to say I didn't like Chevalier's novel Remarkable Creatures, because I certainly did.  But Thomas's Lyme Regis, her Anning, are better realized, more fully developed.

This novel about Mary Anning focuses on her connection with Henry De la Beche, gentleman and geologist.  He's beyond her in class and money. She's beyond him in integrity and, really, intelligence.  Somehow they connect over curiosities (the fossils she finds on/digs from the beach and sells) and the questions of science and faith raised by those curiosities.  (So, as in Remarkable Creatures, there are issues related to class, religion, and gender. Particularly interesting as we got to compare the various challenges facing both a male and female of the time period)  The novel follows both Mary and Henry and does so pretty seamlessly.  The narrative structure was a strength in this novel, I found. 

I really enjoyed the novel and for pretty much the same reasons I enjoyed her Reading By Lightning.  Thomas knows how to spin a phrase.  Her use of language is what captivates.  Her way of delivering the fictional reality is really far above what one has come to expect from many literary novels.

[A caveat:  I didn't particularly enjoy the skimmed over  references to orthodox views of creation vs Anning's and De la Beche's growing skepticism of those views.  The musings felt forced, a little anachronistic in tone, though not topic (I realize these discoveries forced thinkers of all kinds to ask questions that inevitably led to some doubts about more traditional views of creation so I don't question the relevancy of the musings in general).  Ultimately, I felt that this was more preachy than illustrative of a particular mind set.  Trying too hard to be relevant, perhaps? (since the science vs religion debate has, sadly, never managed to calm down).]

What I liked most about Barbara Pym's A Glass of Blessings was just the slow steep of it.  It hung about in my imagination in a gentle, subtle kind of manner. Not intrusive, but present.  Like one of the tea gatherings Pym describes so well, the novel was nothing if not civilized and elegant.  And sad. And funny.  

The narrator, Wilmet Forsythe, disappointed and unoccupied, involves herself in her local church to stem the tide of emptiness, finding humour and absurdity and just the hint of excitement and surprise.  Her church gets a tall, dark and handsome new assistant clergyman and her best friend's gorgeous brother shows up out of the blue. All of this is terribly diverting to a woman married to a hum-drum civil servant named Rodney.  But more than one surprise occurs to challenge her sense of what life can offer. 

All the descriptions were just delicious.  The way the characters talked, what they wore, what they had with tea.  So evocative of a particular time in English society.  And a wonderful place to visit via novel. I became quite involved in Wilmet's non-life and was sorry to see her disappear with the turn of the last page.

I'm now an ardent Pym fan and am planning on reading more.  Thus Mr. Inkslinger and I found ourselves heading to the library last night (whilst wearing inadequate outerwear for wintery-feeling weather) to pick up another Pym novel.  They still didn't have the one I was looking for, so I went with Jane and Prudence instead.  (I also picked up Anne Michaels' Fugitive Pieces and Iris Murdoch's The Green Knight . . . I'm hoping to get to all three before I have to return them).