Three by Henry Green

Henry Green is an early twentieth-century British novelist who completely slipped under my radar. I went from knowing nothing about him to suddenly, within the past few months, hearing him mentioned and praised by a variety of completely separate sources. I was a little bit intrigued, and ultimately motivated to pick up a collection of three of his novels, Loving, Living, Party Going, because it held the promise of covering that upstairs/ downstairs, high class/ low class territory that I've been so obsessed with lately.

At the risk of sounding a little like a teacher's pet, I'll say that I found these to be challenging but rewarding novels. The majority of the writing is dialogue, with very little exposition. This effect, in combination with some heavy regional dialects, was a little disorienting and hard to get into at first. Once I fell into its rhythm, though, I was quickly pulled into the intertwined storylines of the characters. I kept coming back to the idea that these were stories being told through the streams of consciousness of entire groups of people.

The group in the Irish country house setting of Loving is made up of upper class homeowners and their servants. They go about their lives, complete with love affairs, family squabbles, and domestic disputes, and deal with rising tensions as they anxiously watch WWII from afar. Living (which, truth be told, was my least favorite of the three) centers around a Birmingham, England factory and follows the conflicting interests of the wealthy owners, aging workers looking to maintain their status quo, and young men dreaming of escaping the factory for a better life. And in Party Going, perhaps the easiest of the three, a group of friends deals with various major and minor crises that arise when they become stranded in a railway station on their way to a holiday abroad.

In all three, there's something strangely compelling about the way Green's writing style showcases his subject matter. The hopes and fears of his characters are are set against the backdrop minor daily events and petty interactions with others. They're striking novels that might not be everyone's cup of tea, but that definitely made a strong impression on me.

Friday Fancies

I'm more than ready for the three day holiday weekend. This week has felt impossibly long. Was it because it was the first full week back to work? Possibly, but it may have more to do with the long wait between episodes of Downton Abbey! Because of that, you may notice a bit of a trend among some of my favorite things from the week.

(image via here)

Have you seen Slaughterhouse 90210, the Tumblr site that combines literary quotes with pop culture or tabloid photos? A couple with Downton Abbey themes have especially made me smile.

And speaking of Downton Abbey...Living In It? Yes, Please!

For some reason, the second of these two Madewell outfits is making me feel nostalgic for the Doc Martens I had freshman year of high school. I loved those boots!

On the other end of the style spectrum, a look back at some of Kate Middleton's top outfits, in honor of her 30th birthday.

And I wonder which kind of latte art is harder to do, this or this?

Dressing Up to Sleep In

The post-holiday, mid-winter months are when I probably feel the least in the mood to shop, with stores showing spring clothes won't be used for anything other than populated the closet for a few more months of bleak, cold weather. That's why, when I got the latest Anthropologie catalog, I was struck by their genius move of devoting a lot of space to sleep and lounge wear that's both pretty and perfect for hibernating all winter long.

I don't know about you, but now I'm in the mood to expand my pajama wardrobe and add to my supply of bed linens.

The Apothecary

One of the books I got for Christmas was The Apothecary by Maile Meloy. I didn't know anything about it, but it automatically gained some points in its favor when I learned that it's a YA novel that was one of Ann Patchett's favorite book picks from last year.

Set in the 1950's, the story follows Janie Scott, an American teenager who moves to London after her Hollywood screenwriter parents are blacklisted by the House Un-American Acvitivies Committee. Once in London, she meets the local apothecary who, like a Herbology professor straight out of Hogwarts, has the secret ability to use rare plants to create potions with magical effects, like making time stand still or turning people into birds. When the apothecary is abducted by Russian spies, Janie and the apothecary's son embark on a mission to rescue him.

There were one or two things in the book that made me scratch my head a bit. I don't think the 50's-era setting was captured as well as it could have been, and I'm not sure that the Cold War backdrop was the best choice for the book to begin with. I was only aware of those qualms when I took a step back from the story, though. Most of the time, I was completely engaged by the magical elements, fast-paced plot, and sympathetic characters. Don't think my complaints were anything more than minor ones. It's a fun, entertaining book that makes me wish I knew more actual young adults to recommend it to.

In the Club

Everything is said to have been more of an event in the old days. Air travel was an event. Seeing a movie was an event. Even going out was more of an event. Not too long ago, I came across some old pictures of my grandma that prove it.

When asked about these pictures, my grandma first gave a vague answer, something to the effect of, "Oh, that was my club...". Turns out that what she was calling her club was her group of friends that would go for nights out in Manhattan together, to the kind of supper clubs you see in movies like White Christmas, where Bing Crosby walks into a room filled with tables of people dressed to the nines, sitting around having cocktails and watching a floor show.

These were all taken from around the late 1930's to 1940, when my grandma (second from the left in the picture below) and her friends were barely even twenty years old!

To make these outings even more of an occasion, all of the pictures were in little commemorative folders, designed to be souvenirs from the different clubs.

Can you imagine going out back in those days? It was such a different time, yet there's something so timeless about a group of laughing friends posing for a picture during a fun night out.