Book 18

Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
2001: Welcome Rain
212 pages
Recommended by Maya Haynes
Began: 27 March 2006
Finished 30 March 2006

There is a beauty in the familiar and there is little of that in this book for me. Where that known andd comfort did come in was in the detailed and exacting placement of events and names of cities in Maine. There was much of this book I did not want to let in, did not want to let in to my mornings and afternoons, despite the ease and addictive power of the prose. Where I was happy to linger and dwell was in the Maine roads of Munjoy Hill and Two Lights. I waivered with this book from hating all that it brought to me in terms of difficult matters but then I got hooked and found beautiful writing and layering of English. But there was so much to make your head swim in a sinking way here. So much to not know whether you were being led astray or in a path to salvation from it all. I am glad to have read this, stayed up late in bed being sucked in by it all, but not without struggle and frustration.

Quote: "Besides, nothing would ever get started if we didn't first attach romance."  ¶ 16:49