Spill Simmer Falter Wither

by Sara Baume | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0099592746 Global Overview for this book
Registered by gypsysmom of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 2/17/2018
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by gypsysmom from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, February 17, 2018
My sister gave me this book to BookCross. I read it a few months ago and thought it was fantastic. Here's my review:
"I'm fifty-seven. Too old for starting over, too young for giving up." So the narrator of this beautifully written book describes himself. And those twelve words speak volumes about the Irish man called Ray (although he never explicitly gives his name he says his name is the same word as for sun beams, and for winged and boneless sharks). Before the book is over he does start anew and therein lies the tale.

Ray is living alone in his father's house in a small seaside village, his father having died a year or so previously. He sees an ad for a disfigured terrier available from a shelter and decides to adopt him. The dog lost an eye, probably while hunting badgers, and he has other knicks and scars. Ray calls him ONEEYE. He's a ferocious little dog, willing to take on anything from rodents to birds to large dogs. Ray is practically his polar opposite; he has hardly ventured outside of the village in his entire life; he never attended school; he never held a job.He doesn't remember anything about a mother and he never had the courage to ask his father about her. When his father died Ray learned how to get a social allowance and manage his meagre needs. Then ONEEYE came into his life and he had to take him out for walks and drives. The two of them fit quite well together but their carefully constructed life comes crashing down when ONEEYE attacks another dog on a walk. The pound official who comes to Ray's door is put off for a day and that gives Ray and ONEEYE a chance to make their escape. They spend the rest of the summer and fall driving around the country, sleeping and eating in the car. Although Ray had no formal education he is well-read (I was immediately on his side when he took Silas Marner out of the bookmobile to read again) and knows birds and flowers and animals and crops. He talks to ONEEYE continuously about what they see outside of the car and ONEEYE cocks his head to listen attentively. There is much to love about this story and much to think about.

Here's one example of the gorgeous writing in this book:
Last night, the in-between leaves dropped altogether and at once, as though a herd of nocturnal giraffes came sweeping through, stretching their prodigious necks into the treetops, stripping the branches bare and then scattering the stripped leaves over their footprints so no one will know who to blame. This morning, now freed, the stripped leaves skip and soar and shapeshift. They scuttle like pygmy shrews, flutter like common chaffinches. They spread across the road and contort into letters of the alphabet, miniature whirlwinds, religious apparitions." What a terrific description of the autumnal leaf drop.

I think this would make a great book discussion at a book club.

Journal Entry 2 by gypsysmom at Second Cup – Graham & Edmonton in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, February 17, 2018

Released 6 yrs ago (2/17/2018 UTC) at Second Cup – Graham & Edmonton in Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I will take this book to the Winnipeg BookCrossing meetup at 10:30 on Saturday, February 17, 2018 in the Second Cup cafe, corner of Edmonton and Graham. If there are no takers at the meeting it will be left on the OBCZ shelf there.

When you find a BookCrossing book it is yours to do with what you like. You can read it and keep it or pass it on or if you don't think it is your kind of book pass it on to someone who might like it or release it in a spot for someone else to find like you just did. Whatever you choose it would be great if you could write a short note letting us know what new adventures the book is on.

Journal Entry 3 by lonestranger at Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on Saturday, February 17, 2018
The Bookcrossing meetup at the Official Bookcrossing Zone was a chance to fill up the shelf, exchange books and pass on a number, for all of us. I picked this one up from gypsysmom, and I look forwaed to reading it!

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