Mr.Hammond - "Are you looking for something to eat?"
Me - "Yes. Muesli, I thought but, Eggs and Bacon would be glorious!!!"
Mr. Hammond - "Oh good...Excellent. I'm so glad you said that!!!"
Well, while Mr. Hammond got on with his fry pans, eggs, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms and homemade sliced organic bread, I went on with my online extract reading of Donna Tartt's book "My Little Friend" which I've not read. I remember all the furore and press extravaganza of its publication date but, somehow, was far too busy at the time to read it!
Now however, one member of our book club has chosen her latest book "The Goldfinch" for us to read and talk about which I have found, quite frankly, highly entertaining and very readable. Being entirely unaware of her books and writing style, I'd imagined a heavy, dull book and certainly not high on enjoyment value.
The first chapter was amazing, taking me higher and higher, expecting great explanations and revelations when, in fact suddenly, we were lead away into another sphere altogether and, frankly, feeling let down and distraught. Nothing.
The last chapter proved to be a long explanation, examination and discourse on her philosophy which was good. Donna Tartt had her protagonist talk out his actions, feelings, fears and survival vision for his and mankind's future.
It is much, much too long but her descriptive passages are brilliant; even if fairly often full of much used cliches. But the world of art she immerses her readers in is captivating, fascinating and largely
unknown to me; certainly for its complexities. I loved her vocabulary, her constant drip fed knowledge of artists, paintings and furniture; her characters intriguing. I looked up Carel Fabritius and found he died in his studio from an explosion at the Delft gunpowder magazine, close by his studio I presume, for it was destroyed along with most of his paintings and two friends who were there with him. Only a few of his paintings have survived.
Is there a vague link between this explosion and Donna Tartt's explosion of terrorist anger at the Museum in New York?
I enjoyed her mention of Theo's few sips from his adored mother's glass of Marc de Bourgogne, a pomace wine made from the grape residue left over from wine making; a scrap mixture re-utilised and fermented to produce another, altogether, different kind of wine, rather like my re-using the residue of gooseberry seeds skin and tops and tails, left in the sieve after sieving out the thickened juice for my breakfast gooseberry puree. That residue is called the "must" and I find that a fascinating scrap of information. I even looked up Adriaen Coortes, whose still life painting of 3 Peaches on a Stone Ledge with a Red Admiral Butterfly sold at Sothebys for £3,442,500 GBP in 2014, a massively higher sales price than envisioned before the auction. Coortes was a Dutch Golden Age painter, coming after Farbitius of course, painting in the late 1600's; still-life is so compelling and something I love to try out with my camera, which I'm still working on! The Goldfinch is not still-life as such. "As a trompe-l'oeil, it is a unique piece of the Dutch Golden Age painting, It has been compared with Still-life with Partridge and Gauntlets" (1540)." by Jacopo de'Barbari
For the fact that Donna Tartt's book led me to discover facts completely unknown to me, about unknown artists and their paintings on Wikipedia, I'm an enthusiastic fan of her and her writing; I've already "wish-listed" her book "My Little Friend" on this year's My Christmas Book List on Amazon.
Please see references for Carel Fabritius on - Wikipedia the free encyclopedia - Wikipedia.org.wiki/Carel_Fabritius; and on Wikipedia the free encyclopedia for Adriaen Coortes - Wikipedia.org.wiki/Adriaen_Coortes - with my thanks for their invaluable information pages.
Our glorious breakfast came and went long before my writing was completed but it was certainly inspiring and warming and even I can't write and cook at the same time, so its great Mr. Hammond likes to be i/c of the kitchen again!
My pyjama-day with laptop-and radio-music is going well but then it got off to a good start and I'm hoping it will become even better from here on! Monday is still miles away and I'm with that free-to-write-time feeling on a cosy home-stay Sunday.
Happy Sunday everybody xxx
Daisy
