Fitzgerald brilliant first novel.

to be sent to bookczuk in Charleston SC

Oh the anticipation...I'm really looking forward to curling up with this one.

Received today from lucybrown. Many, many thanks!

I just have to make a note now- I started reading this last night, after working my way through some rather scruffy books I had been given and wanted to pass on. It is a delicious book. I am in love with it. I savor the words, the characters, the descriptions. I do not want it to end. But when it comes to an end, I shall try to make a proper note. My bookmark is a little calling card of a certain little Twig, that was tucked in the book (the card, not Twig!)


But until then, I have two questions:
Is this really a first novel?
and
Will lucybrown be upset with me if I add this to my permenant collection?

Pictured: Houseboats on the Thames.

Ah yes- I stand by what I said yesterday; an enchanting book.

The characters are marvelous- from the very proper ex-navy man Richard, to Maurice-by occupation a male prostitute, by happenstance a receiver of stolen goods, to the very bemused Nenna- trying to sort our her life, to her youngest daughter Tilda who "cared nothing for the future, and had, as a result, a great capacity for happiness." I read my husband the description of Stripy the cat and her triaging of rats.

I loved how the folks are called after their boats, and vice versa. I loved the description of a life on the fringe, the quirky dialogue, and even the ambiguous ending.

I am recommending this book to several folks. They'd better give it back when done!

From the Publisher
On the Battersea Reach of the Thames, a mixed bag of eccentrics live in houseboats. Belonging to neither land nor sea, they belong to one another. There is Maurice, a homosexual prostitute; Richard, a buttoned-up ex-navy man; but most of all there's Nenna, the struggling mother of two wild little girls. How each of their lives complicates the others is the stuff of this perfect little novel.


Picture: Houseboats moored on the Thames at Chelsea Wharf. From:
www.londonstills.com/ or0216.html

Well, I allowed this book to travel locally to two reader friends, who, despite my constant nagging, have yet to join bookcrossing. One loved the book, one loved it to about the middle and then said she found herself asking , "So what?"

Loaning the book allowed me the opportunity to realize that it really should travel, and I made it available if anyone requested it. So now it goes very offshore (New MExico, I believe) as a welcome and thank you RABCK to nmbookie.

Pictured: Penelope Fitzgerald, who said, "I have never been a young writer."

RELEASE NOTES: