Carrington Curphy’s Reviews > The Glittering Hour > Status Update

“Selina wanted to tell him she was there, but the words were scattering, leaves on the wind. There wasn't enough breath.

He let go. She felt them move away.

And then a hand was slipping into hers and tugging her after them, out into the glittering night.”

“She remembered their goodbye. Lawrence, barefoot and bare-chested in the hallway where they'd first met, kissing on and on as the tears streamed down their cheeks. She remembered walking out into the frozen morning, bruised-lipped in her thin silk dress.
That was the bit she remembered best about her wedding day. His mouth on hers as he said I love you for the last time.”

“I hope he makes you happy. I hope he makes you feel safe. I hope he tells you every day that you're the most beautiful woman in the world. Because, as you can see from this photograph, you truly are.”


“Tomorrow he was leaving and she would be married.
But it wasn't tomorrow yet.”

The sexism and the demeaning tone from the doctor/professor. Children are distractible. Don’t let the girl come if sensible she can’t say goodbye. The uterus is tilted in high heels

Rereading a book makes the foreshadowing a touch more obvious

“The melting light stole the colour from her face, turning her into a living photograph. She looked secretive and self-contained as she moved through places where he couldn't follow her, just like in the dream. His heart gave a painful lurch as it came back to him; that feeling of helplessness as she slipped away, forever just beyond his reach.”

“She rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, watching colours burst in the darkness behind her closed lids. It was like being permanently in that glorious, fleeting state at the start of the evening - the glittering hour, Flick called it - when the first swiftly downed cocktail drove away the demons; when her blood was warm and her limbs loose and everything shimmered with promise. She was intoxicated by him.“

“It's summer and we're young and alive and I don't want to waste any of those things. I don't want to waste endless beautiful days making polite conversation with people I don't care for. I know it's wicked to lie, but it's more wicked to wish away precious time, isn't it?”

“Afterwards he would remember how quickly, how casually she had dismissed the subject of Rupert Carew, and how easily he was reassured by that. And he would feel pity for the naive fool that he was then, on that night when the stars swam in puddles of molten silver and they danced in the empty streets and anything seemed possible.”