Hello Monday. It's nice to start all over again after a bit of a crap weekend. And the only thing in my diary for the whole week is a meet-your-kid's-new-teacher thing Wednesday evening which means I have the WHOLE week to write! And read. So I shall be a hermit mostly, say no to everything and only answer the telephone if it's my children calling or if I fancy picking it up and shouting GO AWAY for something diverting to do in my tea break.
I'm halfway through Henry James' TURN OF THE SCREW. It is creepy. I had to put it down last night (I was in the house on my own) and read a few pages of THE BON MARCHE (a very dry book about the evolution of the dept store) just to put the spooks to rest before turning the light out. (I am so suggestible. Pathetically so.) But it is irritating me as well. So many double negatives and unnecessary constructions. I have to keep going back over sentences just to get the sense of them, and not like with Dickens, where you are rewarded with something insightful or funny, but just to understand what James means. I'm resisting the urge to scan and find out what happens because I don't want to lose any of the sinister atmosphere which is building up. Have to say though, I'm glad it's a short book. Anyone else read him? What do you reckon? Shoot me down in flames if you love him.