Clarissa Explains It All

I am actually seriously intrigued by Mrs. Dalloway and I had a seriously difficult time putting it down last night. Not a lot has happened this far - or almost everything has happened in the past but we're only a couple hours into the day, so I don't know what everything is yet.

I am in a difficult spot. Something happened, well something that happened was remembered, and I really really want to talk about it. But Shondar hasn't read the book yet and it's a pretty big surprise and I don't want to give it away. But the critical essay at the beginning of the book does give it away.

I shall discuss with the Shondar and see what she thinks.

Here are some notes on the book that I don't mind sharing, even though I'm not really that far in:

1. I was daunted by the fact that everything in the book happens in one day. It doesn't - there are a heck of a lot of flashbacks - memories really. So the book starts with Mrs. Dalloway remembering how when she was eighteen she used to love to throw open the french doors at her family's country home and gaze into the garden. For a while I was confused thinking that Mrs. Dalloway was in fact eighteen and throwing open the french doors at her family's country home.

2. She thinks about Peter a lot. Considering that she hasn't read his last letter and doesn't yet know that he's back in town until he shows up at her house, she spends quite a bit of that morning ruminating on him, the things he used to say, the way he used to act. But I think that this is because he screwed up the thing I'm not going to talk about right now, and not because he was the one who got away.

3. I'm surprised how smoothly Woolf flows from character to character - the POV is omniscient, kinda. You're always in someone's head but it varies from moment to moment whose thoughts you are listening in on.

My Apologies to Loki

Last night, in the throes of my new passion for Muriel Spark, I may have misled Loki (& possibly, unwary readers?) to think that Good Omens might have a twin.
While the wit reminds me of the combined genius of Neil Giaman & Terry Prachett...it is in fact an entirely different author.I'm sure no one noticed but me.

Also, it is not about the Apocalypse.

That is all.

It seems I have a new love.....already?!

Only twenty pages in, & I must tell you, The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie is already in the ranks of my beloved. Why, how could you not fall for a book that rambles on like this? :

Sandy was never bored,but she had to lead a double life of her own in order never to be bored.

Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
and round about the prow she wrote
The Lady Of Shalott

"By what means did your Ladyship write these words?" Sandy inquired in her mind with her lips shut tight. "There was a pot of white paint and a brush which happened to be standing upon the grassy verge," replied The Lady of Shalott graciously. "It was left there no doubt by some heedless member of the Unemployed."

Hahahahaha! Its like Ive found another "Good Omens"!

I love you, Muriel Spark! Im so sorry, I had no idea! (an understatement)
Shondra

On your mark, Get set.....!

I got home today to find a certain delivery propped up on our door frame! (Yes, we are all in a small-town mindset here...how did you know?)
I'm so excited about this!
My book feels like a cheat though, as it appears to be a thin, easy read & (according to an excellent source or two) a funny book at that.
After seeing the new arrival, I suggested we go ahead and draw a second book. Loki thought it was an excellent idea, & we have each gotten a book to place on order while we read the ones we already have in our hot little hands. Its my turn to wrestle with Amazon!
I'm not going to tell you which ones we have in-cue because I have yet to finish (Or even start) The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie, so you will have to wait. Muhahaha.

Un-Harumph

Dear Amazon,

Thank you for your quick response to today's blog post and for making me look foolish.

Love and kisses,

Loki

Harumph

Dear Amazon,

Where are our books? Why haven't they been shipped yet? If the rapture is tomorrow, I want to at least have a good book around so that I can hide out from all the apocalyptic fun and games and continue my geekery less disturbed.

Thank you,

Loki

This is just to say

I have spoken

to Nelly Plum

who lives in

an Ice Box*

and know

she has read

both

of the books

And she

likes the list

read fifty

fifty unread

*South Dakota. It snowed last week.

Forgive me, William Carlos Williams. And anybody who likes poetry in general.

Hoping Miss Jean Brodie is "Prime"

I'm not exactly sure how drawing Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is, for luck. If it was Douglas Adams I would have been thrilled, and if I had gotten a book that was too heavy for a first-read I could always have used one of my Pass-Cards.(reluctantly)I must admit I am a little afraid of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, as it is seven volumes long. Akk! Makes me wish I could faint. (with overly dramatic gestures)

I'm unsure how Muriel Spark and I will get along, either. The description on the List makes me wary. It goes like this:

A meddling teacher is betrayed by a favorite pupil who becomes a nun.

A nun? Oh boy. This does not bode well. I hope this isn't one of those books with heavy handed moral craziness. We shall see Muriel, we shall see.

Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?

9. Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

Who's afraid to be cliche?

I'm a little excited that I got Virginia Woolf on the first go-round. Honestly, I was certain that I would draw fucking Proust or Moby-Dick and spend all summer entrenched. But I can do Virginia Woolf. I'm a feminist. I walked five miles today and then cleaned the house so my brain is shmooshy, otherwise I would have more to say here.

The List describes the book like this:

Septimus’s suicide doesn’t spoil our heroine’s stream-of-consciousness party.

Sounds like a blast.

Has Nelly Plum read it?

No fucking clue. I'll ask her.