Been quite awhile since I wrote anything here. Meanwhile we had a covid epidemic, and we still see the effects of that plus ongoing infections. On the plus side, today is almost an early Spring day, and I have a new teapot. Little things to be thankful for. Here it is sitting on a hot pad I made a few months ago. But really I came to talk about two books.
For those who have read The Jewel in the Crown by Paul Scott, I hope you read Staying On. It is not the hilarious romp the reviews (must have been written by the very young) might make you think it is. No, it is very poignant and ultimately very sad. Having family who were part of the British in India thing years ago, it hit home, I wondered about what it must have been like for them coming home to Canada. It is an excellent book. I think it particularly was influenced by the fact that Paul Scott was dying when he wrote it. You can read more online about the book itself and it's impressions on various critics. I did cry. And there are parts where you laugh out loud, but not always because it's FUNNY. No, more because of the irony and the sadness in the situation that cannot be helped. Both the English and the Indians who populate the book are human, and have various of the traits we see every day for good or not.
Rather different, and very touching as well, but in a very soft and lovely way, is the set of two books from Shion Miura: The Easy Life in Kamusari, and the second is Kamusari Tales Told at Night. This sequence was a pleasure. Soft stories, the setting different than you would ever imagine. A small mountain village with people who are hard working, and for the most part, happy. Traditional while taking modern aspects of life into their own milieu, we hear about the village and it's stories from Yuki, a new Forestry intern from Yokohama. Yuki is a city boy and he is not happy to be going to Kamusari. Yet, in the end, we see his view of the life that creeps up on him in that small town, and we can imagine the strengths of that way of life.
Miura is an excellent writer - almost ethereal in her handling of people and their emotions and yet very boisterous in parts where that adds so much to the story! I will read everything she writes that gets translated into English. In these books the translation is wonderful as well.
