January Reading, 2013
Although Marie Chaix is breaking my heart with her novel, Silences, or a Woman's Life, she also has me reflecting on myself and my relationship with my own mother. There is work involved in reading these words as well as there is deep satisfaction in the beauty of such well articulated emotions. As I turn these pages and sink further into her story I begin to see my world through her lens. I feel the shift in perspective that increases my ability to understand others. It is why I read.
beautifully said.
ReplyDeleteyour love of reading is always inspiring.
ReplyDeleteYes! I read to find those moments, those books, and am so content when they appear in my life.
ReplyDeletelooks like i have to read this - like right now...
ReplyDeleteIt's why I read too. I have just been reflecting on how some books - some I must admit to thinking slight - unexpectedly reveal to me something about my own life and others in my life. I think I need to read this.
ReplyDeleteAnd this is why I will read this book.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully said and this book sounds divine!
ReplyDeleteI've been immersing myself in Walden, resurrecting Henry David Thoreau's ponds, woods, visitors (human/animal),,, letting his thoughts run through my mind - contemplating his frugality and simplicity. He said...Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
I too have been thinking about simplicity, Sandra. Enjoy your ponds and woods.
Deleteyes and yes.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh.
ReplyDeletexo Jane
I've had this open in my brower all day and I keep coming back to the words. I hate to just repeat others but...beautifully said Denise.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me smile, Rachel. Thank you.
DeleteOh, that book sounds like a good one. Love the cover on it's own...
ReplyDeleteVery good reasons, indeed.
ReplyDeletereading is a gift of multiple lives, we have a chance to live others' experiences on paper and learn from them.
ReplyDeleteand your post is why I would read Marie Chaix's book. I am so grateful that we have these multi-layered ways to share the human experience, and get out of our own headspace.
ReplyDeleteI think it's partly to live something we could never experience, to discover other viewpoints but also identify with feelings of our own. I generally find the deeper I get in, the more I like it. Also finishing a good book is always sad in a way because I'm leaving that part of myself behind in it. I hadn't heard of this book before but it sounds wonderful. Reading is such a complex process but you sum it up beautifully.
ReplyDeleteSo true, Emily. I also enjoy the identification part of reading. And leaving the characters can be so hard, or such a relief, depending on the writing. Sometimes I'm ready to escape. This happened to us at a play on Saturday. I don't think I ever felt that way in a play before... I've been reading this book slowly. It is very emotional.
DeleteI think I need to add this to my to-read list. It's interesting how, with my recent writing, so much has to do with parent-child relationships--so many poems had been about becoming a mother and now so many are about observing my husband as a father and about my own parents as individuals. I can feel myself flexing between understanding and inability to forgive. It's an interesting complexity, that of how we consider our raising, how we consider the act of raising.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I bore myself with my interest in that complexity, Molly. It is something I cannot seem to escape. I'm forever returning to it.
Delete"As I turn these pages and sink further into her story I begin to see my world through her lens."
ReplyDeleteHow I love that feeling. That sinking. It is how I feel about good film too.
"...the shift in perspective that increases my ability to understand others." Yes - how succinct...one of the great rewards of reading. This looks like a wonderful book - I shall be adding it to my list. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteyou hold me curious here.
ReplyDeleten♥