After the A-boy graduated from daycare a few weeks back, I started taking the subway to work when it is Deckle's home day. We are close to a subway station and it is obviously cheaper to take mass transit than to hit the road with one of the cars.
Last weekend, I finally found a book to read (amongst the still many packed boxes). After almost six years of driving to work, I am now able to spend quiet time on the subway reading a book. It is simply awesome. And to the naysayers who wonder how time on mass transit is quiet - come spend some time at my house, it is all relative. The book I found was 'A long long way' by Sebastien Barry - a Booker prize nominee that my dear husband probably bought a few years ago for my reading pleasure, but which I hadn't quite found the time to read.
I have been absolutely captured by this novel. Of course, I had utterly no idea what it was about when I picked it up on the way out the door on Monday but cannot wait for my subway ride tomorrow (or maybe an early night to bed) to continue my reading. The novel focuses on William Dunne, a young Irish boy, fighting WWI but will (eventually I gander) focus on the 1916 uprising in Dublin against the British. I have found it unusual to find WWI novels - could equally be the lack of knowledge, but would also argue less has been written about WWI as compared to the next great 'war to end all wars.'
I remember a few years ago I read a Pulitzer Prize winner - One of Ours by Willa Cather - a similar story, I guess - young man (American in this case) fighting a war that might be argued was never 'his' war to fight.
I do wonder how my tragedy will finish - silly me, had momentarily thought it was just a novel of fiction - and William would return home to his girl in Dublin.
I am still in awe of the idea of a 17 year old boy spending months upon months in the messy, dirty trenches fighting, watching his buddies' die. Then again, I am still taken aback at the idea we have soldiers today, far away from their homes, fighting a war.
Kithen, bathtime, bedtime for the little ones, and then maybe a few pages in bed.
2 comments:
Busing to work last summer (20-25 min, no transfers, one block walk on each end) was blissful. I could knit, read the paper, do a crossword puzzle, all while getting somewhere. I love mass transit. Getting to the same area from our new house would now require over an hour on two buses and a 5 block walk from the house. Just not the same.
I just finished my first book after a looooooong hiatus. It was "The Good Earth" and I loved it. Now I'm slowly (a few stolen moments at a time) enjoying "A Blade of Grass" by Lewis DeSoto. Without the "luxury" of a commute, I'm carving a few minutes out of my limited sleep allotment to do so, but it's worth it!
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