The Rain In Portugal

Billy Collins. The RAIN IN PORTUGAL. Random, 2017.

A request find from the Bookman, only two years later. Must have ordered anything by him when I was taking his Masterclass. Read it for pure pleasure, aloud. There are several poems I will remember. "Speed-Walking on August 31, 2013" which commemorates Seamus Heaney's death. I too remember where I was and what I was doing the moment I heard that news. "Basho in Ireland" and "Poem to the First Generation of People to Exist After the Death of the English Language" & of course, the title poem.

SPIRIT FAMILY TREE

Leina Wann. SPIRIT FAMILY TREE. Otter Point of View Communications, 2023.

My friend Leina brought me a copy of her new book. It is wonderful. I’m so glad she followed through with it and did all the work to get it out there. I especially like: 1) the non-sensational way she shows what happened to people during the Communist takeover; 2) the references to the grandmother’s bound feet; 3) the way she has expanded upon the image to suggest binding in other ways, especially with unquestioned social expectations; 4) the way the section on spirituality is presented as the writer’s personal experience, learned in several different ways, and not as proselytizing or a “spiritual how-to”; and 5) the way her 'positively delightful' artwork (on beautiful paper) adds to the writing. 

I was reading an article about the coronation and came upon this quotation which reminded me of this story, if we read God = Beloved: In [his book] Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World (2010), [King] Charles argues against scientific rationality and for a practice of revelation, which he describes as “when a person practices great humility and achieves a mastery over the ego so that ‘the knower and the known’ effectively become one. And from this union flows an understanding of ‘the mind of God.’”

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE

Mary Lawson. The OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE. Vintage, 2006. 

Found this book at the thrift store on Saturday and finished reading it in 4 days. That is fast for me. I chose it because I have enjoyed two other novels by this writer, CROW LAKE and A TOWN CALLED SOLACE. 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BRIDGE braids three time periods, pre-1939, post-1939, and mid-1950s, in a small northern Ontario farming community. The family dynamics, sibling rivalry, is fascinating, especially around the difficulties of dealing with a child who lies and manipulates. The struggle to make decisions for himself for Ian, the doctor's son, is also convincing. And the types of trauma common to such a place and such a time--accidents, suicide, betrayal, drunkenness, peer pressure--are well told. I was somewhat skeptical at the twice-referenced return of soldiers for R&R from WW II. Canadian troops travelled by sea and no one got to come home on a break in the same way members of the armed forces did in England. Members on R&R at home would have been troops in training who never left Canada or the training officers. This caused a credibility problem for me, in an otherwise gripping story. 

AMANDA IN ENGLAND

Darlene Foster. AMANDA IN ENGLAND: THE MISSING NOVEL. Central Avenue, 2012.

Because I have never read any YA before. This appears to be part of a Canadian girl travel series. The British vocabulary is a highlight, as are tourism favourite sites. 

THE EVENING CHORUS

Helen Humphreys. THE EVENING CHORUS. HarperCollins, 2015. 

Set during WW II and a few years after, The EVENING CHORUS begins with an RAF pilot shot down, picked up, and imprisoned as a POW, somewhere in Germany. The different rules for officers and enlisted prisoners surprised me. And the difficulty the officers had, trying to keep themselves busy, amused, while unable to work. The protagonist takes up bird-watching. Subsequent chapters focus on the wives left alone in England, and other family members, a sister who lost her home during the Blitz. The couplings, shared accommodations that happen because of the bombings, the loss of the men, the disruptions to routine--daily, seasonal, and generational. Enjoyable in the same vein as this writer's COVENTRY.