Life, or something like it.: October 2022

It's sunny today! This is newsworthy because for the last week or two it has been anything but :|. Rain, mist, and fog have been taking turns, and on occasion joining forces, to make the world in general somewhat miserable looking. But as I say, today it's sunny, and we'll hopefully go out and make some use of it :).

In the mean time though, life's been generally ongoing in fits and starts. One of the constants has been the reading, so let's start there. Having finished with Look to Windward, and having thoroughly enjoyed it, I thought I'll just dive into Matter right after. However, for some reason I'm still not entirely sure of, I couldn't really get into it straightaway.

When I gave it some thought, it occurred to me that the Culture series could actually be considered in a way to be a trilogy of trilogies. If you put aside The State of the Art seeing how it's not actually a novel, then the first three, next three and last three novels have been written (or at least published) somewhat close together, but with a greater gap between each group. Does this do something to the tone of the books in some way?

I do feel like I read Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games and Use of Weapons rather close together, and though the books were completely their own stories, there was a sense of crescendo, a building up of tension, as if Banks was shifting through the gears a bit.

I had something of a similar feeling with the next three novels. There was something of a gap between my reading of Use of Weapons (partly just to recover from the end of that book and partly to catch up on the book club readings) and Excession. But then I read Excession, Inversions and Look to Windward in quick succession. And again, I definitely felt this sense of build up.

In each case, the third book in the sequence has been my favourite. The narrative has been more layered, the protagonist(s) much more shaded in grey, the conclusion emotionally charged. Which is not to say the other books didn't have those elements, just maybe not in the same way.

Anyhow, I did end up really enjoying how Look to Windward played out in the end. It wasn't the sort of shock to the system the ending of Use of Weapons was, but felt powerful nonetheless, especially the epilogue :). Banks does have an amazing way of putting things in perspective.

Then, as I mentioned, I couldn't really get into Matter, possibly partly just because I needed to give myself a bit more time to think about ..Windward. Fortunately, there were more book club books to read :). This month's book was actually one I'd been looking forward to! The latest (although since then there's another one been released I think, anyway) in the Jackson Lamb series, this time rather obviously called Slough House :).

Anyone familiar with my history with the series would be pretty surprised, I think, to read that I genuinely enjoyed this book! Partly this could have been the setting, I read mostly on the trip the US, either on planes, or in between happenings with the family in New York or Asheville (more on which later). Reading it in bits and pieces meant I could actually enjoy how Herron writes! I have a feeling I'd never really paid much attention to that before.

I have to say, of course, that the ending wasn't much fun for me. However, (and here I must warn you, some spoilers follow) given the ambiguity, and the previously telegraphed reappearance of Sid, I'm more at ease with River's situation this time around rather than a quarter of the way through Spook Street when it seemed like the OB had shot him in the face! Now I can look forward to reading the next book :).

And then, once we were back from the trip, the next book club book which I'd ordered from the Library was waiting to be picked up, so I thought maybe it'll be fun to read The Beekeeper of Aleppo sooner rather than later. Not wholly unexpectedly, this turned out to be a book I'd probably not have read had it not been for the book club.

Regardless, I'm glad I did, because it speaks compassionately yet unflinchingly about the ongoing horrors of war, displacement and separation. Something that is otherwise altogether too easy to just hide from (in my privileged position of not being in one of those warzones, of course).

The Syrian refugee crisis is not over, but here in Northern Europe it's been rather buried by the war in Ukraine. Unsurprisingly and somewhat understandably. Regardless, it felt timely to be reminded of the ongoing issues in other parts of the world. But even beyond that, the story of Nuri and Afra itself was worth experiencing. Having finished reading it, I now feel myself gravitating back to the world of the Culture, so Matter will probably be my companion for the next few weeks :).

The post for this month, however, would be in no way complete without mention of the much awaited and anticipated trip to the US for a long delayed reunion with some of my family there as well as some visiting from India! And what an amazing trip it turned out to be!! :) For one thing, all the travels - the flights to and from New York as well as the long drives from New York to Asheville and back, worked out like a charm. (With the one exception of the hour spent trying to get through Lincoln Tunnel from New Jersey, but that was really nothing in the grand scheme of things :D.)

We spent a lovely day in Manhattan, lazily exploring bits of the Upper East Side, Central Park and a brief tour into Midtown. The weather was amazing, some of the locations familiar from previous visits. But the biggest source of enjoyment was just being able to spend time with family again, not through chats and emails, or even through screens on video calls, but finally in person :). The last day of the trip was spent similarly in NYC, with some added catching up with friends we hadn't met in five years!

The week in between though, was utter bliss! The familiar long drives to and from Asheville served as an interesting counterpoint to the days in Asheville spent relaxing, walking, chatting, birding, catching up, cooking, eating, laughing and just generally enjoying being together :). Even got to catch one of my mum's concerts live for the first time in ages! And celebrated my aunt's birthday in style :).

The weather all through served us very well too! And for the first time in my many years of visiting Asheville, the autumn colours were on full and gorgeous display! In fact as we headed south, there seemed to be more colour than in the north east. Then through the week we were there the trees changed in front of our eyes from the occasional reds, oranges and yellows amidst the green to progressively more fiery riotous colours :). It was a fun time.

The fact that we had a week meant that things didn't need to get too hectic :). There were quiet times to take it all in. I suppose it can be easy enough to cruise along the path of one's own life. Stay (or grow) insulated from the other lives being lived all around us. There's good reasons for it, I'm one of those that does find social interactions beyond a point somewhat burdensome. But being able to share life does have the possibility to bring so much joy!

Well, it's been something of a travel filled summer-autumn this year. Especially after the enforced seclusion of the last couple of years. But now it's likely to be a bit more of a settled couple of months till Christmas. Traditionally not the most fun time to be living in Norway, what with the darkness creeping over everything and the loss of colour from the world around. But I feel the memories of the fun trips to Greece, Belgium and the US have fortified me somewhat :).