Inspirational writing
A friend of mine has just published his first novel. The book is entitled 'A Week in Winter' and the author is Barth Landor. The story revolves around an employee in an American Consulate in Eastern Europe. An Ambassador is going to come to their small outpost, in a small town - no one knows why. The Consulate prepares itself for the visit, everyone on edge except the narrator who is disenchanted with his working relationships and his career. At the same time he is caring for his young son alone as his wife has gone back to America on a visit.
The narrator comes across a family of Jews sheltering from threat in the basement of the consulate and his humanity is tested. As a gesture of goodwill he agrees to fetch some sheet music for one of the Jews, against the wishes of his boss...
It is a very thought provoking piece of work, and I would particularly recommend it to Jude. There is some stunning subtle observation about our human condition of indifference to what matters, and the weakness at the heart of society.
I will quote you a portion which stands on its own. The narrator is becoming increasingly disturbed by his own weaknesses:
O my life O God O why have I forsaken you-My life squandered-My single passage through existence wasted on paltry anxieties-Money Things My appetities How I'm perceived-O forgive me for being so utterly unaware-So unmindful of the mystery of my being here-A creature on a planet hurtling through a universe-The only creature in the universe who is myself-Alive this once and taking it for granted-Persuading myself that reality is routine-O the madness of normalcy-Making conversation Sitting in chairs Reading magazines-Regulating my life around projects and schedules as if I were not subject to a permanent blotting out-Dear God I have failed to be myself-Failed to acknowledge you-I've accepted reality as being merely the behaviour of my species-O if that's all there is birth behaviour death-If there is only the surface-Despair-There's no hope unless what is obvious is unreal-All of it unreal-The stars and planets and gravity and human norms-The more obvious the more unreal-Skyscrapers and presidents unreal-Do not let me commit my only self to this image-world - Help me to live in opposition to it.
The action takes place over one week and is structured around the days with mornings at home with his son, work, then evenings returning to his son. The above is like a prayer, the rest of the book is a steady, fairly dense prose, subtle and thought provoking with its insights, but it is not a long book - 143 pages.
I thoroughly recommend it to you all
It's on Amazon - Permanent Press.
