The Affair that I didn't want to end

WOW! I just wanted that out right off the bat. Wow to Graham Greene's The End of the Affair. Wow to Colin Firth's reading of the book. Just wow.

This audiobook is the version of "unputdownable" for audiobooks. I started listening to it on my way to work from school and I didn't want to stop. I had to because of work but I listened it on my commute home and finished it within that day. After finishing it, I wanted to listen to it again. I don't know what kept me more enthralled, if it was the narration of Firth or the text itself. Even now, I have to remind myself of the hundreds of books in my TBR list to keep myself from listening to it again. 

I find this book atypical from the other 1001 books because the prose is "simple" compared to the majority in the list. And yet the impact is there. In fact, it is the candor that draws the reader in. 

This novel is exquisite and beautiful. It is that kind of book that entangles you. I felt acute sadness when it ended and just wanted it to go on. I am going to try and find the movie they made with Julianne Moore and see how that holds up.

Opening: A story has no beginning or end, arbitrarily, one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.

True Grit: Wading through Manila with Tartt and Portis

Last Thursday, my Action Research class was called off because of exceptionally heavy traffic due to flooding. It normally takes me 2 hours to get to class from Fairview but that day, it took me 4 hours to get to school. Good thing though that I had previously loaded a couple of audiobooks into my phone. That day, I started listening to Donna Tartt's reading of Charles Portis's True Grit. 

I have read The Secret History (Tartt) as part of 1001 challenge so I was pleasantly surprised that she is the one reading True Grit. At the end of the edition I have, there is an essay by Tartt on how important True Grit is to her family.

There is a part of me that is almost thankful that I got stuck in traffic that day. True Grit is not something I will pick up and read. Westerns just isn't my cup of tea. Listening to the audiobook, however, made me appreciate the book. Tartt is engaging as a reader and was able to give life to the different characters. The story and writing itself is simple but the simplicity adds to the experience, instead of detracting from it. 

People normally focus on the details of the story or the writing when they talk about a book. This book reminded me that every book I read is an experience. That apart from the story of the book, there is also the story of me reading it. I am therefore thankful for this book, not only because it was such an entertaining story but also because it kept me sane during that 4 hours of trying to get to school, despite hell or high water (literally, in this case).