My mother really questions the choices of my book club. Last time around, it was Emma Donoghue's "Room". Room is where five year old Jack was born and where he lives with his Ma, held captive within the four walls since she was kidnapped seven years earlier. (Great book, but I didn't like the end. Can't tell you why without spoiling it.)
This time, we're reading Annabel by Kathleen Winter. The first line of the publisher's description: "In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once." (Not my mom's type of reading material.)
I'm not quite finished, but so far the book is beautiful and moving, though definitely not a light read.
I've sent my regrets to my fellow members for this month's book club meeting (Stars on Ice is taking priority), but in their honour I'd like to offer one of my favourite quotes from our latest selection:
"She was not a person who froze someone's character in her mind, calling this one egotistical and that one not nearly confident enough and another one truthful or untruthful. To Thomasina people were rivers, always ready to move from one state of being into another. It was not fair, she felt, to treat people as if they were finished beings. Everyone was always becoming and unbecoming."
What a timely message of rebirth, renewal and redemption.
Happy Easter, everyone.
