My first read for 2020 is in the books:
The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey
I rate this one 4-stars, but not because I loved it.
It is a very slow starter – I didn’t feel truly engaged and hooked into the story until page 176 which is a long time to stick around.
It is sad. Terribly sad. The beginning is sad, the middle is sad, and the ending is sad.
But I believe that great books evoke deep emotion, and this one had me feeling life, love, loathing, loss, and several more sentiments in between.
I believe that great writing is a craft, and this book is very well-written, weaving three plots into one narrative in a way that is interesting and not confusing to follow.
I believe that great stories make a personal connection in some small way, a character we recognize or a memory that is brought to mind…
In January 1996, Coach and I had been married less than a month. In his first year of coaching after college, he was the Offensive Coordinator for the 1-A Celeste Blue Devils. He also coached five – yes, FIVE – spring sports (Junior High Girls basketball, JV Girls Basketball, JV Baseball, Junior High and High School Track, and Off-Season Football). From the very start, he devoted many, many hours a week to his kids.
We lived in the neighboring town, renting a two-bedroom, one-bath, wood frame house that was built in 1930. We paid $275 a month.
It didn’t have central heat or air, the washer/dryer connections were in a room on the back side of the carport (which also contained a commode!?!?), and we absolutely loved it.
Towards the end of the month, northeast Texas experienced a massive cold front that brought lots of frozen precipitation making bus routes unsafe. In the realm of public schools, if busses can’t run, school can’t be in session.
For eleven – yes, ELEVEN – days, classes were cancelled due to the icy road conditions.
No school, no classes, no practices, no lifts, no games.
Nowhere to go. Nowhere.
There wasn’t even a grocery story in town, which was good as there was no way to get there…our cars were iced into the carport.
So, each morning of those wonderful, beautiful, perfect 11 days, Coach and I would bundle up, traipse through backyards to get the two streets over to have lunch at the Pizza-n-Such buffet, order a couple of pizzas to go for dinner later that night, and rent the maximum allowed 5 movies (VHS, of course, as we didn’t purchase our first DVD player for another year or so, which is a whole other story).
Then we’d tiptoe our way back over the ice, holding tight to each other, catching one another when it got too slippery, to get back to our little haven.
Coach and I built a pallet in the living room floor so I could get as close as possible to the wall heater. Every blanket and pillow we owned was piled up to keep warm. We watched movies, talked, napped, watched more movies, ate our pizza and leftovers, and did all the things that young newlyweds do.
It was heaven on earth.
As Iona Grey writes in The Glittering Hour, we were “entirely, deliciously, illicitly alone.”
Her telling of Selina and Lawrence escaping reality and living one week of true bliss in Chapter 14: “A String of Golden Days” brought to mind our weather-forced escape from school, and sports, and people all those years ago.
That’s what great, 4-star books do: take you back to wonderful, beautiful, perfect times.
This one also teaches the value of love.
One must never turn away from it, push it away, nor deny it.
It’s what make life desirable. And it’s the most tremendous gift one can ever receive. It’s my greatest treasure, the greatest story on earth.
Enjoy this one with a box of Kleenex.
