Musings

Reflections on life lived by a coast

  • Home
  • Travel
  • Yoga
You are here: Home / Archives for good reads

Feasting on a Good Book

November 25, 2012 •

Over the Thanks­giv­ing hol­i­day I’ve been read­ing a gor­geous new book, John Sat­ur­nal­l’s Feast, by Lawrence Nor­folk. The hard­bound ver­sion is a feast for the eyes, lav­ishly designed and illus­trated, unlike most nov­els these days (open­ing pages of chap­ter 1 shown here).

john-saturnall-feast-opening-pages

Each chap­ter opens with an old-style wood­cut illus­tra­tion, fol­lowed by a dropped cap­i­tal on the fac­ing page. The dropped cap­i­tals are styled in a way that’s rem­i­nis­cent of illu­mi­nated man­u­scripts — a bit of a design con­ceit, given that the story is set in the first half of the 17th cen­tury, rather than the medieval period. (The story opens 5 years after the Pil­grims landed at Ply­mouth Rock.)

Sur­pris­ingly, this book is printed in 2 col­ors on every page — a fea­ture you don’t see in very many eBooks… Head­ers, foot­ers (page num­bers) and ding­bats appear in red, along with a dropped cap­i­tal at the begin­ning of each chap­ter.

saturnall-feast-on-kindleEven the Kin­dle ver­sion has a bit more visual panache than usual, as shown in this photo of page 1.

A Story to Savor

John Sat­ur­nal­l’s Feast is any­thing but action-packed pulp fic­tion, intended to kill time on long plane rides. The story is set at a time when life moved at a slower pace, when jour­neys took place on foot or on horse­back. When meals took hours and many peo­ple to pre­pare.

This is a book to savor. The words and imagery are dense, com­plex and juicy. They reward slow, atten­tive read­ing.

And that’s appro­pri­ate because the story touches on sen­sory themes — sights, smells, tastes — such as gar­den­ing, cook­ing (slow cook­ing over wood fires), herbal lore, rural vis­tas, the sounds and smells of wood­lands — or the stink of 17th cen­tury san­i­ta­tion.

The author’s lan­guage is lush, emu­lat­ing older styles of sto­ry­telling from cen­turies ago. The story takes you back in time, back to the days when the Eng­lish coun­try­side was cov­ered with thatch-roofed cot­tages and dense wood­lands.

John scram­bled up and down the ter­races and banks, hunt­ing out the secret breaks in the thick­ets or crawl­ing through hol­lows woven from sharp-spined stems. Black­ber­ries lured him into sun-pricked cham­bers. Old byways closed and new ones opened, drifts of net­tles surg­ing for­ward then dying back.

If you can find time dur­ing the busy hol­i­day sea­son to relax, sit by the fire, maybe with your favorite glass of wine — this is a book to keep close at hand.

Slow cook­ing, slow read­ing — for a life well-savored.

About This Blog

Reflec­tions on life, travel, books, and yoga. Think­ing out loud about the pur­suit of mind­ful­ness and well-being.

Learn­ing how to recover from the loss of a beloved spouse, and then to find a trans­for­ma­tive path for­ward.

About Me

Semi-retired marketing exec, transitioning from a career in high tech. Now "managed" by two Tonkinese cats. Missing travel and friends on the West Coast. Avid reader and foodie. Staying active with long walks, biking, kayaking and yoga.

Recent Posts

  • Wet Sand, Wet Boots, Birds
  • Living with Vintage Items
  • Slowing Down
  • Reflections on My Camino
  • Going Off the Beaten Track in France

© 2020 by Christine Thompson. All rights reserved. • Log in