Frank McCourt 19th July 2009

I read Angela's Ashes but didn't warm to it. Not really. Too grim. Sure, go ahead. Read it: it will do you good but I don't really want to read it again.

I love the warmer bits in Frank's life. Like in 'Tis how he soaked for hours and hours in a hot bath as the only way of keeping warm. And where he goes back to have lunch and a laugh with Horace, "offering me another chunk of sandwich telling me I could use a few pounds on my bones....the power of this sadness that tells me this won't come again, this sandwich, this beer on the pier with Horace that makes me feel so happy all I can do is weep with the sadness in it..."

A sandwich figures in Teacher Man, too. "This bread was dark and thick, baked by an Italian mother in Brooklyn, bread firm enough to hold slices of a rich baloney, layered with slices of tomato, onions and peppers, drizzled with olive oil and charged with a tongue-dazzling relish". A youngster threw the sandwich. Frank ate it. It was classroom management and it worked.

Well done, Frank.

Thanks.

Would you believe

John Cornwell's 'Seminary Boy'
was interesting,
stained glass
dark wood
but at the end
it seemed like something was missing
- for him at least.

Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi'
was interesting
full of light
bright colours
and nothing missing
- for me, for one, that is.

migrant labour

Chris Stewart's "The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society" is worth reading, if only for his discription of a short stay with a Moroccan Berber family.

Spell Check

After six fat volumes,
much read,
we ought to look out
for Potter.

They are much banned,
those books and
"Every burned book
enlightens the world".

A click on a portkey
and you're there:
morphed, transfigured,
transported.

Pensieved memories, erased?
Windows, Apples, Vistas
- one William Gates -
more snakes slytherin'.

Basking in the dark,
under the lady's umbrella,
watch out for
Harry Potter
and an encore from
the Sorting Hat.

Taken On Trust

[I got round to reading Terry Waits' account of his time as hostage in Beirut 1987 - 1991. 1,763 days in captivity, mostly in solitude]

Church of England is a professional body
a bit like the British Medical Association
Terry refers to other Christian religions
which are different in style

World Service BBC worth supporting
Treasure pleasures like food, fresh air
Looking at the changing sky
Appreciate little changes in life
Cockroaches, Popes, Archbishops

References to God, Jung, Christ
Prayer and mediation
Look after your teeth

John McCarthy & Brian Keenan
Seem to have done well
Enjoyed An Evil Cradling