We went to do our weekly shop this morning. I happened to look up just as a bird was flying into a space in a building. It soon came out again. You can just barely see it:
We had to wait outside for a few minutes when we got to the store. There is someone in the entrance making sure that there are not too many people inside at one time. The limit is 50, including employees, so we waited until two people came out, then we were allowed in. After sanitising trolley handle and our own hands, we dashed around the store. The fresh produce was where there were gaps, but the rest of the store was well-stocked and I got everything on my list. Rather than pack our groceries on the shelf for that purpose, we went outside to do it so two more people could go inside.
As we begin a new month, it's sort of weird to remember how different everything was just a few short weeks ago. I still have a pile of library books that I checked out before everything closed down. I'd been planning to return them and pick up the ones that were coming in, but then everything closed down. Thankfully, I will not run out of books anytime soon--between charity shop and other finds, and my e-reader, I have plenty of reading material. I still can't keep myself away from the e-book and e-audiobook sections of the library website, though. They're still operating and I'm still a regular visitor. 😊
Anyway, here is the first part of my March reading list:
Fox, Swallow, Scarecrow by Éilis Nà Dhuibhne
I
found this book on a shelf of Irish books in my local library. I’ve
read another novel by this author and two short story collections, so
I checked it out. The book was inspired by Anna Karenina, but is a
satire on the Dublin literary scene as it was in around 2005. One
(academic) reviewer talked about the book being set in the mid-1990s,
but one has to wonder whether she even read the book, since the post-
September 11 Iraq War has a rather important role to play in one
storyline. I think I read Anna Karenina a few decades ago, but am not
really sure, as if I did, nothing from it sticks with me. As a
result, I cannot say how closely the book follows that one, although
there are some obvious parallels, like the main character’s name
and the name of another character, who is called Leo. Based on
something else I read, when this book came out in 2007, there was a
bit of a game going on to see whether people could identify some of
the real-life authors who made an appearance (under different names)
as characters in the book (some actual names were used as well).
There
are two storylines in the book. One revolves around Anna, a writer of
children’s historical fiction, who is married to Alex. She drifts
through her days, not really able to focus on much else except
herself—she seems quite disconnected from everything, including her
own life. Alex is a real estate guy and it’s at the tail end of the
Celtic Tiger years, so he works a lot and makes a lot of money. Anna
is numb to everything, although she tells herself she should be happy
that she is so well off because of Alex’s job. Later in the book,
we find out that she might not be as disconnected from this aspect of
her life as she once thought. She meets a journalist named Vincy and
they begin an affair, which is more important to her than to him. She
met him at a literary function he attended with Kate, who is the
sister of Anna’s sister-in-law. Kate has a thing for Vincy.
Meanwhile, Leo, an activist who lives in rural County Kerry, and runs
a publishing house for Irish language poets is also at the event and
nurtures a love for Kate. Aside from the nod to Anna Karenina and the
satirical aspect of the book, there were other issues addressed that
I enjoyed reading about, many of which are still an issue today. The
discussion about the Irish language and its place and importance in
Irish culture continues. Road traffic deaths claim lives. People are
still angry about drink driving laws and the impact on pubs and rural
community life. I have no way to judge the latter, because I was not
here before these laws were enacted, but it seems to me that rural
Irish pub life is doing just fine—each place I have lived has had
numerous pubs, many of them within a few steps of one another. Housing prices in Dublin continue to make it difficult for people to
live there. I am sure that the discussion of what it means to create
art will never end, in Ireland or elsewhere.
I
really loved the book, right up until the last 10 or 15 pages. I was
reading along and realising that there were not enough pages left for
a satisfactory ending. As I turned each page, I was willing the
author to hurry up and wrap everything up, which happened in one
storyline, but not really in the other. Didn’t like the ending at
all, but perhaps I just need to think about it some more.
Growing Up With Ireland: A Century of Memories From Our Oldest and
Wisest Citizens by Valerie Cox
I
heard about this book last year and stuck a picture of it on my
desktop so I would remember to request it from the library at some
point. Then I stopped noticing it. Then we started the process of
moving. Then we were moved, but trying to get everything sorted.
Finally, we were settled and I remembered to request the book. I’m
glad I did, because I enjoyed the book a lot. The author talked to
people who were born in the 1920s, the decade in which most of
Ireland was freed from the colonising presence of the Brits, a civil
war was fought, and the republic was born. Ireland as an independent
nation is not yet 100 years old, and many would say that until the
six counties of Northern Ireland are no longer part of the UK, the
job is not done. In any case, this is a young country, but the people
who were born at around the same time are elders. They’ve seen a
lot of changes and experienced so much. Their lives have changed and
Ireland has changed. It was fascinating to read about their lives and
what they think of how things have evolved. A few years ago, we saw a
film called Older Than Ireland, which consisted of interviews with
centenarians. That was an excellent film—and I am not a movie
person. Bill and I used to do life story work with groups and individuals, many of them elders. I have always been
someone who relates better to older people than to those younger than
myself, so maybe I just have an old soul or something. This book fits
right in with my interest in the life stories and experiences of
older people and provides a window into Irish history and culture.
The Lola Quartet by Emily St John Mandel
This
was another one that I kept in the back of my mind so I could request
it from the library, along with the author’s latest book, called
The Glass Hotel. Recently, in the space of a few days, I read an
interview with Mandel about the latter in a book related email and
saw a recommendation for this one in a different email. I requested
both. This one, being older and having no queue, came quickly. I
loved her Book Station Eleven, which was my introduction to her work,
so I was looking forward to this one. Now, having read it, I am
looking forward even more to her latest. I loved this book. I brought
it to read on the day we said good-bye to our daughter after her
short visit and then went on to the dentist, where Bill had n
appointment. I began reading and was immediately sucked into the
story. It was a great distraction. I read some more on the bus
home—apparently I missed an impressive and beautiful rainbow,
because I had my nose stuck in the book.
The
title refers to a jazz quartet that came together in a high school in
Florida. Anna is a year or two younger and is not in the quartet, but
she has connections of one kind or another to all of them and serves
as the eye of the storm that ends up engulfing them all. The members
of the quartet are in their final years of high school and they soon
go their separate ways. The book follows the characters, moving back
and forth in time, as they drift apart and then come back together in
unexpected ways. There is a bit of a mystery element in the book
regarding a dangerous mistake Anna made on the spur of the moment at
one point. This mistake leads to serious repercussions for the
others.
I hope you're well and managing to cope with this strange new world!
