I was going to start out this book blog by presenting a lucid, sweeping introduction and laying out the important books to read this fall. Instead I got sidetracked by reading The Deptford Trilogy. (I know I'm late.) this work by Canadian author Robinson Davies had long been on my list but put off for far too many years.
The trilogy -- consisting of The Fifth Man, The Manticore, and World of Wonders -- is a perfect example of why I love contemporary fiction. The storytelling is gripping, the writing is lucid and natural, the characters are appropriately talented, flawed, conflicted and inspired. There is magic and mythology thrown in to boot. These novels are dense with allegory, symbolism, history, and philosophy. They contain vivid word pictures of lives and professions in all their confusing busyness. Along the way we also are provoked into contemplating the nature of human experience, life on this earth, spirituality -- in other words, all the big questions.
This is why I love to read and why I have books in my art gallery.
