"We're all of us afraid of many things, but if
you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren't
your own person at all -- are you?" (Circling the Sun, p. 165) ... and
this:
"The trick is learning to take things as they
come and fully, too, with no resistance or fear, not trying to grip then too
tightly or make them bend." (p. 336)
Just now, tonight, I finished Circling the Sun and
said to myself "what a beautiful book." ... and even more such a
beautiful story.
It happens to be biographical, too. A sort-of
fictionalized version of the memoir of Beryl Markham, one of the 20th Century's
most remarkable women, one who becomes a record-setting aviatrix. But that's
not really what the book's about. It puts a frame on it, but
"Circling" is a seriously hard-to-put-down read about a woman whose
life begins in Kenya, but becomes all else, all things that matter, as well.
Paula McLain is a wonderful writer. And as I fully
expected, and loved to do, I learned a lot about my own writing craft by making
my way slowly through her beautiful descriptives of some of the most insightful
wisdom surrounding human -- our -- behavior, attitudes, and powerful
powerlessness.
Read it. Five stars. No doubt.
