I just finished The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy.
If you read the story, you'll understand when I say that as I read I imagined Mama Moss with a nice French volunteer helping her to write one last letter. Her very own Sister Mary Inconnu. When I got to the part where Harold Fry finally makes it to see Queenie as she lays dying, I imagined myself walking down the corridor and through my mom's door. I felt all of his pained awkwardness and fumbling. Except this time I imagined something else going on inside my mom's head. Not a Dante's Inferno as I previously thought, something more fluid. Pieces of her life being set adrift on a wide river. Or something.
That's the thing about a good story. It gives you another look inside a world you thought you knew. You move along with the characters down an unpredictable path and wind up stepping out a different door into a landscape that is fresh.
I love this photo of my mom. Snapped on a sunny afternoon in Spain 50 years ago. Who was behind the camera? Was that our cat or the neighbors? I think of all the photos that have gone missing or were never taken of her. A life before selfies. Before we documented every detail.
But I'm straying off course…
The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy. It's a good one. Who knows what it may remind you of…or who. And if you have yourself a little cry when it's over, well, all the better. I highly recommend rereading the end of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry when you get to the end of the Queenie book. It's so good to get the 2 different perspectives of Harold's last visit to see Queenie. I think it enhanced my own reader's experience so much!
Now I'm onto this:
See you soon. Let me know where your reading adventures are taking you.
As my school year draws to a close and I prepare for some blessed solitude and QUIET, these words from a beloved writer seem especially fitting to share…
Love May Sarton, again and again…
Current happy reads are The Storied Life Of A J Fikry, ( a must novel if you love bookstores and booksellers ) and the memoir/grammatical musings: Between You and Me, confessions of a comma queen
I finished Queenie’s lovesong last week — and I had to order Harold Fry’s book from the library to re-read the end!! My heart broke…
Reading Stephanie’s comment made me think….. maybe its time to reread my favs, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and ” The Good Earth”……..again. That in spite of the fact that I have a mountain of unread books that my mother passed on to me. Not enough hours in the day.
oh loretta i envy your ability to read & enjoy so many books at once! it’s all i can manage to read my pile of new yorkers with a novel thrown in for good measure. of course there’s also all the online reading of articles/blogs/newsletters. your books all sound so good. must check out Paris Stories! among others….
Hi Mary Ann–I always have a book or two ready to read after the one I’m currently reading. The books you talk about look really good! Thanks.
Watching the Starz adaptation of this book got me to rereading the Outlander series and once again I am obsessed with Claire and Jamie’s story. Right now I’m reading the 5th book. I first started it in 2001, but my life was in turmoil then and I never finished it. Since then Diana Gabaldon has added 3 more books to the series. I don’t know what I’ll do with my obsession when I’ve finished.
Maybe I’ll start my other favorite books over again. I never used to reread books because, I would have instant recall of the next paragraph as soon as I would read the preceding one. Maybe it’s old age or maybe its the passage of time, but I don’t seem to do that as intensely as I used to. I think I’ll have to reread the Lonesome Dove series. I loved those books too.
May Sarton. Discovered her oh so many years ago and everytime I go to Cape Cod, I pick a few of her journals to accompany me. I suppose I could just get a set from there and annotate the hell out of them but bringing the volumes I bought in my 40’s feels like bringing a piece of my younger self with me.
Reading: Paris Stories by Mavis Gallant; The Arsonist by Sue Miller. Under the Magnolias (memoir kinda) by Frances May; The Enduring Shore (A History of Cape Cod) by Paul Schneider.
Audio: The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman) – amazing and enchanting to listen to in his voice.
We ARe All Completely Beside Ourselves (Karen Joy Fowler) – just a couple of kids monkeying around……really good!
Euphoria (Lily King) Anthropologists in the south Pacific – loved it
Love ya!
I’ve just started audio book, The Invention of Wings, by Sue Monk-Kidd. I’m not far enough into it to tell if it suits me or not.
Just finished Room by Emma Donoghue. Occasionally had to step away from it and go out side. Certainly makes you appreciate the freedom of being able to just go when you want too.
You look so much like Mama Moss. very poignant post…
#1. Harold Fry was just the sweetest man. I savored that book when I read it last year. And then I sent it to my best friend in New York. And told my mother-in-law she had to read it.
#2. I’d heard about the Queenie book, but had tucked that little morsel away and plum forgot about it. THANK you for reminding me.
#3. I love May Sarton. I fell down the May Sarton rabbit hole in the winter. Michigan winters are good for falling down May Sarton rabbit holes.
#4. Currently I’m reading The Folded Clock: a diary by Heidi Julavits. It’s a collection of diary entries as essays. I just finished reading Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller, which was a rather grim tale (though impressively written)!
Love the post. Love the quote. Love May Sarton. Getting ready here to dive into Mark Twain’s autobiography (part one). 🙂