Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy
2 journalers for this copy...
Anyone who has read The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry must also read this companion volume, written afterwards but telling the story in parallel, from Queenie's point of view. In any case, read Harold before Queenie. This transforms the meandering line of Harold's walk across England, in answer to a postcard his old friend and colleague sends him from the hospice where she lies dying, into a perfectly wrought circle. As news of Harold's dogged journey reaches the hospice, through his own terse postcards and then media reports, Queenie writes a letter to Harold in shorthand, transcribed on a typewriter by a nun, Sister Mary Inconnue, explaining things she had kept silent, describing her fellow patients, who leave one by one in the undertaker's van, entrancing the reader with the creation of her sea garden, revealing herself as a modest, friendly, kind and educated woman weighed down with a feeling of guilt. I was swept along by her story, and the totally unexpected ending kocked me off my feet. Not sure if I can pick up another book today.
sending to a bookcrosser in Germany who has it on her wishlist.
The book arrived last week during our winter holidays - thank you VERY much for sending it to me all the way from Switzerland to the north of Germany!
Last week I finally finished this book. It took me a few months, because at first I obviously wasn't in the right mood and then I only read a few pages every time. Suddenly I decided to read it properly, and I liked it.
It's the companion to "The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry" and I think it is probably not very important which of them You read first. They both leave parts of the whole story unexplained, but that ist part of their fascination.
It's the companion to "The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry" and I think it is probably not very important which of them You read first. They both leave parts of the whole story unexplained, but that ist part of their fascination.