In my long ago school days, when I was reading a book I particularly enjoyed I would walk home reading it. It was a quiet half hour when I could slip into another fascinating world.
No homework, no house chores, no interruptions.
Simply the magic of living another life.
“I knew I could stay in this town when I found the blue enamel pot floating in the lake. The pot led me to the house, the house led me to the book, the book to the lawyer, the lawyer to the whorehouse, the whorehouse to science, and from science I joined the world.”
So begins Leslie Daniels disarming and appealing novel about a woman rebuilding her life. CLEANING NABOKOV’S HOUSE is prose elegantly written – filled with bits of razor-sharp deadly wit, sex, food, money and motherhood.
One usually writes about book after one has read it. Except I found myself carrying this book from room to room. Practically reading bits and pieces while I walked. This novel so grabbed me with pleasures on every page that sixty-nine pages into this novel I had to write and tell you about it. It is sixty-nine pages of dead-on funny storytelling. Not the kind of funny that you feel is forced and clever and should laugh. But funny in a black humour self-deprecating kind of way. Funny they way you often think about things but never voice them.
It’s a beguiling story of a woman who walks out on a loveless marriage – a thirty-nine year old divorced mother of two, an unpublished manuscript by Vladimir Nabokov, and a journey that is deliciously passionate, darkly comic and wise.
I’m off for my afternoon walk down to the river. Perhaps I’ll take my book and read page seventy of CLEANING NABOKOV’S HOUSE.
You have well intrigued my senses……….I shall venture out to find this jewel and put it on my next to read list!
Tin Man. it is a wicked read. In a good way – not like that wicked water-melting witch. XxOO V
You made he have a good chuckle after a long day……..thanks……that silly old witch, I had almost forgotten about her!
I don’t dare read as I walk anymore for fear of tripping, but I do enjoy a book that’s hard to put down. Thank you for the recommendation. I’m drawn in by the title, too.
In all reality Lori I don’t think I could walk down a road reading either. Given my age! Growing up in a small town that only had sidewalks in the business area we walked in the road. No pavement, no curbs and seldom any cars. Perfect for a book-worm to work walk and read. V.
You have teased us! Now we will have to read it to find out how a blue pot could lead to such an end. Or perhaps you could post when you are done. Will put it on my list as well.
This morning instead of writing in my journal I had to return to this book. My coffee grew cold as I returned to page seventy and began reading. The heroine, cash short, rescued the pot, cleaned it, and cooked pasta in it. The first step in reclaiming her life. Every page is such a delight. I am now on page 147 and I do believe she is starting out on a rather revolutionary business venture. V.