What an utterly, utterly delightful book! It gave me flashbacks to the Dear Dana book, who hand wrote 580 letters to her Facebook friends. It also made me wish I had to do it. Maybe that will be this summer's project!
Favorite quotes:
p3 ~ Just as a summer afternoon is gorgeous from inside air-conditioning, and you step into the day, hot, muggy, miserable, a postcard from France with all the lavender and sunflowers, I imagine, so far more alluring that the place itself.
p46 ~ Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters recieved back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificient puzzle, or. a better metaphor, if dated, the links of a long chain, and even if those links are never put back together, which they will certainly never be, even if they remain for the rest of time dispersed across the earth like the fragile blown seeds of a dying dandelion, isn't there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one's life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing for someone?
p77 ~ There's no need for me to share my birthday as I would hate for you to have a sense of obligation to send me roses. I have plenty.
p99 ~ I was worked up and I often find myself behaving with less civility over email.
p122 ~ An email can in no way replace a written letter.
p253 ~ I found it to be absolutely astounding all the trouble living has turned out to be.
“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”
Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime. Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter. Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness. Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read. (picture and description from
Amazon)
Now I am moving back to the Christian Fiction Reading Challenge to read our book for April ~ I belive I'm going back to pioneers! 😃
Keep Reading!
Melissa
