Comments on: Noirmoutier

By: Marie

Marie — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:06:35 +0000

I didn’t mean ALL the nature-related parts. I liked reading about Valancy and Barney tramping in the woods, etc. It’s when they TALK about nature or Valancy goes on and on about John Foster’s books that is one big snore.

But yes: still much less compelling than the “Olive is mean” bits. That Olive—keeping all her goods in the shop window.

You clearly had good taste in poetry as a child. I think I was drawn to the sort of princessy quality in “Because I Could Not Stop…” Sort of like an early version of that movie about Brad Pitt as Death.

By: sarah

sarah — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:06:44 +0000

i think i always skimmed the nature parts (except for when valancy makes the necklace out of flowers—does that count?). In general, so much less compelling than the “olive is mean about the wedding” bits.

my childhood fav. emily dickinson was “I’m nobody.”

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:46:32 +0000

(of course, I was a very silly kid. I had no sense of irony and would do things like memorize Emily Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”).

By: Marie

Marie — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:43:58 +0000

I know! Well, this time I skimmed through all the wide-eyed How Beautiful is Nature! stuff. So Victorian. I took in so earnestly, though, when I was a kid, and would repeat things from the book. “We shouldn’t pick flowers,” I’d say in a mystical tone. “They lose their magic when away from the wood.”

But it’s such a pleasure to see Valancy come into her own. And I like her new clothes. And the romance is very satisfying.

By: sarah Mesle

sarah Mesle — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:15:06 +0000

was just trolling by and had to say: The Blue Castle! The Blue Castle! oh man I love that book.