"From the air, through the plastic porthole of a descending plane, Bermuda appears improbable."
-- Basil's Dream by Christine Hale.
Lucy Langston moves to Bermuda with her husband and 12-year-old son in 2001, when economic troubles and racial tension are threatening the idyllic serenity of the island paradise. I'm 50 pages into it and completely absorbed.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Opening Sentence of the Day: Basil's Dream
"From the air, through the plastic porthole of a descending plane, Bermuda appears improbable."
-- Basil's Dream by Christine Hale.
Lucy Langston moves to Bermuda with her husband and 12-year-old son in 2001, when economic troubles and racial tension are threatening the idyllic serenity of the island paradise. I'm 50 pages into it and completely absorbed.
Hi RCR, I just glanced at your TBR list and saw Russell Hoban's "Riddley Walker" at the top. Great book -- one of my favorites. I had to write a story about puppetry the other day and was bummed I couldn't work in a reference to it. It's set in post-apocalypse England, when broken shards of the present are all over the place and the amateur anthropologists of the future misinterpret them in devastatingly funny ways. Like "Mad Max" but a lot smarter. A whole religion's been built up around a misunderstanding of the Punch and Judy show. Great stuff! (Hoban's also the author of some terrific kids' picture books.)
ReplyDeleteBob -- thanks for the scoop on Riddley Walker. I found a copy at a library book sale and, recognizing it from the Anthony Burgess list, I grabbed it. But I had trepidations because of the Old English-style vernacular. You make a convincing case for giving it a go.
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