Sunday Salon - Day

I am now paying for the past two weekends of illness and snow, which resulted in loads of reading time.  Between work and family obligations, the past week has been nuts.  And there have been those little necessities one must work in between all the other things, such as going to the grocery store and doing laundry.  In fact, I am writing this Sunday Salon update on Friday night, because I will have been out of town most of the weekend and am not sure what time on Sunday I will return.  (I hope it is before 8:00 p.m., because I really want to watch the John Adams miniseries on HBO...)  So instead of writing about what I will read on Sunday (because I'm not totally sure yet), I will fill you in on what reading I have managed to accomplish this past week. 

My reading this week has been taken over by Day, the new novel by A. L. Kennedy. ( I'm hoping that by the time you read this, I will have finished it.)  As of right now, I am on page 108 (out of 274) and am totally captivated by her realistic, if at times painful, prose that puts readers directly into the mind and thoughts of a WWII RAF bomber-P.O.W.-bookseller-movie extra.  That character is Alfred Day,  and he is trying to come to grips with his experiences five years after the war's end as an extra in a movie about P.O.W.'s.

Here are some passages I've read that really stood out for me:

"Battledress made a lousy pillow.  You might almost think it had been invented with some other purpose in mind." (pg. 6)

"It was either that or go and fetch the Luger, show the director something he couldn't repeat.  Not that you can't repeat killing - you just always kill someone new."  (pg. 32)

"...and finding the pages smelled of damp and lilacs and maybe lamb, he thought lamb.  Books remembered their old houses, their old owners."  (pg. 34)

"It had seemed not unlikely that he could work out his own little pantomime inside the professional pretense and tunnel right through to the place where he'd lost himself, or rather the dark numb gap he could tell was asleep inside him...So it could possibly make sense that he'd turn up here and at last work out what was missing...maybe even put it back." (pg. 35)

"...the edges of his dreams had dogs in them and they were running closer." (pg. 36)

Kennedy's prose is so effective in capturing the struggle between Alfred's inner turmoil and his will to survive.  I don't know how it will all turn out yet, but whatever the outcome, Day is an outstanding literary example of the internal, unseen damage war leaves with survivors. 

Comments

[Jeane]

Yours is the second mention I've read of Day. It sounds pretty good.

[Ann Darnton]

I know of this book of course with it having won the Costa but hadn't realised that that was what it was about. I'm wondering now whether or not I want to read it as Dad was a FEPOW and I don't find that area an easy place to go. "Bridge on the River Kwai' is a definite no, as far as I'm concerned. I'll be really interested in what you think when you've finished it.

[Wendy]

Sharon,

I can completely relate to your busy life after being sick - that is what I have been doing for the last two weeks...playing catch up!

This book sounds wonderful and since it is a Costa winner I will eventually be reading it. Thanks for your comments on it!

[Mrs S]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this book - I like the way you pull out your favourite parts of the prose.

Hope you managed to find some time today to spend with your book.

[Alisia]

Your life sounds a bit like mine right now. Getting over being sick, laundry, grocery shopping, trying to fit some blog time in! That sounds like an interesting book, but I think I have had my fill survivors of war for the moment. Of course, I say that while I'm reading Gate of the Sun, a book about Palestinian freedom fighters. Go figure.

Have a great weekend away!

[Megan]

"...and finding the pages smelled of damp and lilacs and maybe lamb, he thought lamb. Books remembered their old houses, their old owners." (pg. 34)

I love this. I am not sure I want to read the book by your description of the topic. But that line got me, so of course now I want to.

Thanks for sharing.
I hope you get/got back in time.

[heather (errantdreams)]

I love the quotes! Thanks for including them!