Rachel, I can tell you precisely what books I packed for which holiday. Not what bathing suit. Not shoes. But I’ve connected books and trips in my memory. I first read The Sea, by John Banville, flying home from Paris with highlighter in hand, gobbling up his gorgeous prose. I reread Unless by Carol Shields in Dublin.
Rachel, I can tell you precisely what books I packed for which holiday. Not what bathing suit. Not shoes. But I’ve connected books and trips in my memory. I first read The Sea, by John Banville, flying home from Paris with highlighter in hand, gobbling up his gorgeous prose. I reread Unless by Carol Shields in Dublin.
The Stone Diaries, of course! Brilliant right there. But then Larry's Party! I was a book review editor when that bound galley crossed my desk--how lucky was I?! It wasn't that such an approach to the novel was new, it was that, in my opinion, it hadn't been done quite as well as Shields had done it.
Louis de Breniere's 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' travelled out to Kefalonia when it came out in paperback and before the film was shot there. Yes, you are so right about places and stories. 'Discovered' John Grisham long after he'd made his marque as a thriller writer sitting under a towel on a beach on Lesbos turning the pages through to a finish: didn't disappoint and the burning blaze of an August Sun didn't burn me to a crisp.
Yes, that's lovely, connecting a book memory with place/time memory! I have one such to offer: I discovered Anybody Can do Anything by Betty Macdonald on the bookshelf of a B&B in the village of Coverack on the Cornish coast. Perhaps not Great Literature but still a wonderful read.
Rachel, I discovered Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending also at an Airbnb, and got halfway through before I had the sense (haha) that I knew what those two characters on the train we’re going to say next, and that’s when I realized that I’d already read the book!
Rachel, I can tell you precisely what books I packed for which holiday. Not what bathing suit. Not shoes. But I’ve connected books and trips in my memory. I first read The Sea, by John Banville, flying home from Paris with highlighter in hand, gobbling up his gorgeous prose. I reread Unless by Carol Shields in Dublin.
Oh, Carol Shields, how I miss her!
She was amazing
The Stone Diaries, of course! Brilliant right there. But then Larry's Party! I was a book review editor when that bound galley crossed my desk--how lucky was I?! It wasn't that such an approach to the novel was new, it was that, in my opinion, it hadn't been done quite as well as Shields had done it.
I just love her short stories as well! She's got such a deceptively light touch, but her stories linger in my mind for years afterward . . .
Louis de Breniere's 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' travelled out to Kefalonia when it came out in paperback and before the film was shot there. Yes, you are so right about places and stories. 'Discovered' John Grisham long after he'd made his marque as a thriller writer sitting under a towel on a beach on Lesbos turning the pages through to a finish: didn't disappoint and the burning blaze of an August Sun didn't burn me to a crisp.
Yes, that's lovely, connecting a book memory with place/time memory! I have one such to offer: I discovered Anybody Can do Anything by Betty Macdonald on the bookshelf of a B&B in the village of Coverack on the Cornish coast. Perhaps not Great Literature but still a wonderful read.
Rachel, I discovered Julian Barnes book The Sense of an Ending also at an Airbnb, and got halfway through before I had the sense (haha) that I knew what those two characters on the train we’re going to say next, and that’s when I realized that I’d already read the book!