“Books won’t solve my problems, Harriet.”
“No, but they give your problems perspective. They allow your problems to breathe.”
Monica Wood feels like an imaginary muse. Imaginary because I can’t seem to get words on a page with any type of consistency these days. (Don’t believe me? Look at the date of my last post. So sorry.) To quote Rae, who announced MW’s The One-In-A-Million Boy as our long-ago book club selection, “We’re…tired and time challenged.” Nearly eight years later we’re still baby-steppin. The good news is we’re still reading Monica Wood. I’m happy to report that she has, in fact, given me perspective and simultaneously allowed my problems to breathe via her latest How To Read a Book. Once again, she’s written a “beautiful, big-hearted treasure of a novel.”
When asked what prompted the prize-winning author to write this book, Wood admitted that she grappled with depression and thought of “hanging up her quill once and for all,” but a distant monologue in her head persisted. It was a fictional character named Violet waiting to be born. I’m so glad I got to know Violet—a 22-year-old who learned (the hard way) that we are not the worst thing we have ever done. Sadly, she killed a kindergarten teacher because of a drunk-induced car crash. Fortunately, she met Harriet in prison. I love Harriet. Adore her. She’s a retired English teacher who introduces female inmates to the likes of Yeats, Maya Angelou, Fitzgerald and other winners. Edith Wharton too. I will be reading Spoon River Anthology soon and wishing I was in Harriet’s weekly book club. Her perspective, and later Violet’s, is a big broad spectrum of colors: it’s gold, green, red, and blue. I’m so grateful lovely Monica Wood didn’t hang up her quill—that she added bright hues to my perception of the world.
P.S. Frank is worthy of mentioning here—he’s such a gem.
One final note: I pledge to focus on “the meanwhile.” If you want to know what that means, you’ll have to read this five-star book.
Posted by Tracy