A Song for Summer.
When I finish a book, it's not the story or the characters that stay with me long after I've put it down, but the way it made me feel. I buy books faster than I read them, and ever since I found out about www.kitabain.com (a refreshingly cheap online bookstore that delivers straight to your doorstop and is cool with payment on delivery), I can't stop. So now I have piles of half-read books at home which I'm determined to finish this summer. Believe me, nothing makes me feel more guilty than leaving a book unread.
Currently I'm reading A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson. It's set in Austria during the years leading up to World War 2, so yes, even though there is mention of Nazis and Hitler's unsettling regime and the persecution of Jews as any World War 2 story inevitably must have, it's still one of the most different books I've ever read. You normally read about girls trying to break free from an oppressive atmosphere at home and taking on jobs that were previously thought to be suitable only for men, but Ellen Carr isn't one of them. She loves cooking and taking care of others and she enrolls in the Lucy Hatton School of Cookery and Household Management, graduating top of her class, and then goes on to work as a housemother at the Hallendorf School of Music, Drama and Dance in Austria. The irony of all this is that she comes from a family of militant suffragettes; women who'd 'tie themselves to railings and God knows what' in support of the movement to secure equal voting rights for women in the UK. The last thing they expected Ellen to be was a housemother. The school she works in is a crazy, magical place with eccentric naked teachers dunking in the lake to cool off (no kidding) and intelligent, musical kids who've been abandoned by rich parents who're too involved in their own lives to do anything about their offspring. The only rational person Ellen finds is the school groundsman, Marek, who with his size, strength and greenish-blue eyes sounds a lot like a steady tree to me. He's 'a man very much at home in the world', and with him, Ellen feels as if she is 'completely understood'. I've read more than half the story, and though most of the musical terms in it don't make sense to me (there's a lot said about Beethoven and Mozart and concertos and operas), I'm dying to know how it ends, and whether Ellen and Marek realize their love for each other.
One part I like especially is when Ellen first arrives at the school and is interviewed by the headmaster who's afraid she's going to give up and leave the school all too soon like the housemothers before her.
Here's an extract:
'...But some of the older children are not easy.'
'I'm not afraid of children,' she said.
'What are you afraid of then?'
'Not being able to see, I think....I mean, not seeing because you're obsessed by something that blots out the world. Some sort of mania or belief. Or passion. That awful kind of love that makes leaves and birds and cherry blossoms invisible because it's not the face of some man.'
I was totally blown away by the simplicity and clarity of her answer. Yes, she's right to fear that state of mind; how many times have we ignored leaves and birds and flowers because we're busy obsessing with something else? Too many times to count in my case. Maybe Eminem was right and love really is evil (spell it backwards, I'll show ya)!
Be afraid, be very afraid:P
Currently I'm reading A Song for Summer by Eva Ibbotson. It's set in Austria during the years leading up to World War 2, so yes, even though there is mention of Nazis and Hitler's unsettling regime and the persecution of Jews as any World War 2 story inevitably must have, it's still one of the most different books I've ever read. You normally read about girls trying to break free from an oppressive atmosphere at home and taking on jobs that were previously thought to be suitable only for men, but Ellen Carr isn't one of them. She loves cooking and taking care of others and she enrolls in the Lucy Hatton School of Cookery and Household Management, graduating top of her class, and then goes on to work as a housemother at the Hallendorf School of Music, Drama and Dance in Austria. The irony of all this is that she comes from a family of militant suffragettes; women who'd 'tie themselves to railings and God knows what' in support of the movement to secure equal voting rights for women in the UK. The last thing they expected Ellen to be was a housemother. The school she works in is a crazy, magical place with eccentric naked teachers dunking in the lake to cool off (no kidding) and intelligent, musical kids who've been abandoned by rich parents who're too involved in their own lives to do anything about their offspring. The only rational person Ellen finds is the school groundsman, Marek, who with his size, strength and greenish-blue eyes sounds a lot like a steady tree to me. He's 'a man very much at home in the world', and with him, Ellen feels as if she is 'completely understood'. I've read more than half the story, and though most of the musical terms in it don't make sense to me (there's a lot said about Beethoven and Mozart and concertos and operas), I'm dying to know how it ends, and whether Ellen and Marek realize their love for each other.
One part I like especially is when Ellen first arrives at the school and is interviewed by the headmaster who's afraid she's going to give up and leave the school all too soon like the housemothers before her.
Here's an extract:
'...But some of the older children are not easy.'
'I'm not afraid of children,' she said.
'What are you afraid of then?'
'Not being able to see, I think....I mean, not seeing because you're obsessed by something that blots out the world. Some sort of mania or belief. Or passion. That awful kind of love that makes leaves and birds and cherry blossoms invisible because it's not the face of some man.'
I was totally blown away by the simplicity and clarity of her answer. Yes, she's right to fear that state of mind; how many times have we ignored leaves and birds and flowers because we're busy obsessing with something else? Too many times to count in my case. Maybe Eminem was right and love really is evil (spell it backwards, I'll show ya)!
Be afraid, be very afraid:P
Comments