Status Updates From Walking Naked

A satisfying conceit for a writer, and in my book I made use of it, equating the harsh red dust, the empty, stone sky, with the dead marriage. (Which is not to say, as Andrew does sometimes, that writers are liars. If we are compulsive rearrangers, obsessional shapers of patterns, it is only to make the truth clearer.)

This is the new generation game. Cursing the parents... it isn't your fault, it's the fault of your mother and father who never explained the rules properly; only said, truth is relative, nothing is certain, instead of this is right, this is wrong. Fair enough in a way — why should we pass on these absolute rules when we no longer believe them?

I suppose I do complain sometimes. Who doesn't? We all know
(or believe secretly) that when we were children we were happy
and trusting and hopeful and good and that we would still be all
these pleasant things if sometime, somewhere, somehow, we had not been betrayed.

But she had never understood the difference between necessary acquaintances and friends. A mixture of shyness and honesty made casual contact an ordeal. An interested look from a stranger, a kindly smile, threw her into a turmoil. How much should she tell, reveal of herself? To hold back seemed mean-spirited. People were either friends of the bosom to be loved and trusted with secrets or they were nothing.

The switching back and forth in time was initially a bit disconcerting as the voice changes at the same time..however Iam used to it now and enjoying the book mightily...there is so much that the reader can identify with ...even though the action takes place right after the war there is a contemporary feeling to the events of the day..by the way I had never heard of "real tennis" as opposed to just tennis..

O.K. I am back to Bawden today, while completing Hocking, and commencing on another Cooper...Lettice not Jilly...
Walking Naked takes place in the span of one day...so far I find the writing brilliant and the setting timeless..let's see how it plays out..