Fictional Soul Mates

Dear Professor J,

That greeting is the result of reading this book again, somehow it seems a bit cold to begin simply "Professor J" after reading this collection of charming letters. I feel my writing may be affected. You should hear how I go around talking when I read Jane Austen!

The thing that made me feel as if  these characters were kindred spirits from the start was their love and appreciation for books. I had fallen in love with the main character, Juliet, by page 11, when she tells Dawsey "...there is nothing I would rather do than rummage through bookshops." and desperately want her for a friend.  She uses the word "snarky".  Clearly we are soul mates. Or would be if I believed in such a thing. ;)

How wonderful to have someone contact you because they have "an old book that once belonged to you" as Dawsey did. I own many copies of old books with lovely inscriptions (some purchased for the inscription alone) and how often have I wondered about the previous owner.  I have a vintage copy of Auntie Mame inscribed "From Gertrude to Pearl." I can't help but wonder about those two. And how many authors have I read that could lead me to say with Dawsey, " his writings have made me his friend." This is clearly a book written by and for bibliophiles.

Juliet's comments on things distinctly feminine like shopping for clothes, having her hair done, men and relationships throughout the book, read like a gracious, well-mannered, less vulgar version of Sex and the City (while some things change, others do not):

"Do you suppose the St. Swithin's furnace man was my one true love? Since I never spoke to him it seems unlikely, but at least it was a passion unscathed by disappointment."

Priceless.

I adore the letters as a way of telling a story.  I love letters, postboxes (which I photograph and sometimes blog about --its a sickness) and books of letters. I'm currently meandering through a book of Flannery O'connor's correspondence and just picked up a copy of The Letters of J.R.R.Tolkien at the library book sale over the weekend. So the writers of this book had me from the start.

How correct Juliet is  (in referring to letters of Charles Lamb)  that they will tell Dawsey more about him than any biography ever could. Of course the private thoughts shared between friends and acquaintances would do that! I felt they did a very good job of making the "chapters" seem like real letters written between real friends, which means that at times in a clever bit of writing we are left to read between the lines.

As for the historical context, it's very nice to be reading along and have a character mention something in passing; like how nice train travel was again without the blackout, or that a whole generation had "grown up without dances or teas or flirting," that lends a sense of the small strains on daily life added to the terror of the blitz and fear of being occupied. How the combined stress of all those things must have worn on people over the years.  England during the war has always interested me and the details the authors add brought to mind accounts in a couple of books I've read recently: How We Lived Then and London At War as well as the Masterpiece Theater production,  Foyle's War, which I highly recommend if you haven't seen it.

I haven't gotten us very far, it seems. I'm still in the first 20 pages or so. I could happily camp in this book for a very long time. So unless you are truly intent on slow and measured you'll have to crank it up and drag me along (there may be epistolary kicking and screaming). ;)