As the year draws to a close, I thought I’d take a moment to pay tribute to a few old friends — a handful of books that have cheered me through my least favorite month of the year three years running now, as most of my decimated book collection lies buried somewhere in boxes.
A Year in Provence
, by Peter Mayle. Somehow his glorious descriptions of their first year freezing their butts off in Provence seem ever so much more glamorous and appealing than our own experience freezing our butts off in Mexico. Must be all that wine and food they had. And, of course, the great humorous writing.
Winter in Majorca, by George Sand. Another winter-themed work. George Sand’s account of her sojourn with lover Frederic Chopin in a remote, deserted monastery in Majorca, freezing their butts off but oh so picturesquely. The book is also an interesting portrait of ethnocentricism (Sand’s) run riot.
Maggie Darling, by James Howard Kunstler. I originally bought this novel out of curiosity because I like the author’s nonfictional writings on Peak Oil, The Death of Suburbia, etc. This work of light fiction has Held Up Amazingly Well over three or four readings to date. I probably turn to it at this time of year because it’s set at Christmastime, but even if it wasn’t, I’d reread it. It’s well written and wickedly funny — enough to cheer me up in December, which is no small thing.
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