Consolation by Michael Redhill
"Didn't those men and women, whose names we have all but lost, wander home in the evening to their hearths and speak of their future here? We are only faintly aware of the city they lived in - it is just an intimation, a movement in the corner of the eye. Of that city which must have stunk of horses and offal and pine oils and roasted fowl, of that air that rang with the cries of newsboys and the sounds of boots on hollow walkways and hooves on stone."
The Royal British Columbia Museum takes me back in time like no other museum has ever managed. I just returned from a week in England trolling through the British Museum, the Victoria Albert, the Museum of Natural History, the National Gallery...and never have I felt transported into history as I have at that lovely museum that I first visited in the fifth grade. There is a room, a re-creation of a kitchen from the days of yore, a breeze (from a fan) blows the curtain and the scent of cinnamon from a cooling (fake) pie, and the clatter of wagons and horse hooves is piped in. You lean over the wooden railing, willing yourself to become part of the room and breathe it all in. All your senses are there, you are almost there. This passage from Redhill's novel Consolation does the same for me. Through out this novel he evokes time and place and emotion convincingly and with such clarity.
"He only wanted to drowse a little in his life, as most people did, and carry along as if he'd gotten lost in the forest for a while, where the sounds of animals were too distinct for comfort and the scents too strong, and then the sounds of horses came piping in through the boughs. The wish was for home and the wish was a weakness."
Other Notable Reads of Late:
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
A page turner that lives up to all the reviews, but too much for me. The story was shocking in it's stark depiction of a father- son relationship in a post-apocalyptic world. I draw the line at stories of cannibalism. Of course I ended up reading it during the Christmas season! I had a narrow window of opportunity and I was loaned the book.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult
I finally read a Picoult book and can see for myself how gripping they are. Her topics have always scared me off, along with her cult like popularity among women. This one had resonance in light of the recent school shooting here so I picked it up. It was a strong story. I guess it always comes down to that, you can't beat storytelling even when other things like writing style get in the way.
Purple Hibiscus by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie
Couldn't put it down, the characters are so rich and marvellous and stories of tyrannical religious parents always intrigue me (I don't know why because they bare no resemblance to my own childhood). Set in Nigeria it is a coming of age story that you really will enjoy. Highly recommended!
