Book Therapy
July 12th, 2007 by Kathleen Bolton
Sorry for the long silence. An unexpected family emergency derailed my orderly world, and I had to beat it across the country on short notice. Of course, this travel emergency coincided with a terrorist attack and the midwest’s worst thunderstorms in US history. So it was a crappy time for air travel.
But a great time to read a good book. I had lots of time on my hands.
I never really thought about the calming power of a good story, but boy I needed it in the last few weeks. Dodie Smith’s classic I CAPTURE THE CASTLE saved my sanity through a nightmare journey through Chicago O’Hare. I was able to pound through Bernard Cornwell’s THE LORDS OF THE NORTH while seeing if I could get on a standby flight to San Diego (I couldn’t.)
When I finally got to my mother’s, her stack of Reader Digest’s Ellery Queen mysteries helped me adjust to the time change. It’s amazing how many fictional characters employ chauffeurs and housekeepers bent on murder.
Since we had long evenings to get through, we had time to watch DVDs. Everyone in my family wanted to watch Masterpiece Theatre-type dramatizations of classics. I think it had something to do with the fact that things were uncertain and a tiny bit scary that we craved old favorets told in new ways.
My mother was riveted by a recent dramatization of Elizabeth Gaskell’s NORTH AND SOUTH. North and South is considered one of Gaskell’s “lesser” works, and she got a lot of flack by contemporaries for delving into social issues like trade unions and the British class system. But the story remains perhaps even more relevant today than it did when she wrote it, and the BBC/screenwriter Sandy Welch did a killer job with the dramatization. It kept us engrossed for over three nights.
Then we went with Dickens’ OUR MUTUAL FRIEND, another great rendering by the BBC. I left my mom with my copy of JANE EYRE; I was only able to watch the first hour, but she was so caught up in the story, I didn’t have the heart to bring it home with me.
As I write this, I’m in the San Diego airport awaiting my dreaded flight to Chicago (afternoon thunderstorms are predicted. Again.) and the only thing allying the anxiety I feel over the possibility of my flight being canceled is that I have a spanky-new copy of Marsha Moyer’s HEARTBREAK TOWN waiting for me when I get on the plane. I’ll be in good hands with her.
UPDATE: Now I’m stuck on the tarmac in Kansas City waiting for a t-storm to pass. But Heartbreak Town’s Ash and Lucy are about to launch into a huge argument, so I’ll be entertained even as I see my connection to NY evaporate.
UPDATE #2: O’Hare Airport is truly the seventh level of hell. I’ll spare you the details, but it looks like I’m not going to get home until 1 a.m. Ash and Lucy are now working towards understanding each other’s demons.
UPDATE #3: Arrived home at 2:30 a.m. EST. The most comforting thing about the flight, other than the fact it finally got airborn, was that every single person on the plane had their nose buried in a book. We are a nation of readers–when circumstance forces blocks of time on us, we turn to books.
I’m happy to be home again. I totally owe Therese a biggie for shouldering the bulk of the blog burden in my absence.
Image credit: thresca
Welcome back, Kath!
I agree. O’Hare is the seventh level of hell. My flight from Kansas City to O’Hare was delayed half an hour, so I missed my flight from O’Hare by two minutes after a horrible re-enactment of the Home Alone running for the plane scene.
Thanks, it’s good to be back!
I had to run through O’Hare as well, Worderella, but I didn’t miss my flight. As soon as I reached the gate, gasping like a landed fish, they knocked the departure time back two hours. Hell only begins to describe that place.