I’ll be posting Part 2 of “curtain calls/curtain cries” tomorrow, most likely. But I had to write this wee post about a book I have only just started and am loving: “ManAlive” by G.K. Chesterton. (Okay. The name’s not great. Move past it.)
The book tells the tales of one Innocent Smith, rather a strange, unconventional sort, thus far, but a captivating one nonetheless.
I mean, how can you not like a fellow who literally BLOWS upon the scene during a Great Wind?
How can you not want to root for a fellow described thusly:
“He had bright blonde hair that the wind brushed back like a German’s, a flushed eager face like a cherub’s and a prominent pointing nose, a little like a dog’s. His head, however, was by no means cherubic in the sense of being without a body. On the contrary, on his vast shoulders and shape, generally gigantesque, his head looked oddly and unnaturally small. This gave rise to a scientific theory (which his conduct full supported) that he was an idiot.”
AND thusly:
“He had the sensualities of innocence; he loved the stickiness of gum and he cut white wood greedily as if he were cutting a cake. To this man wine was not a doubtful thing to be defended or denounced; it was a quaintly-colored syrup, such as a child sees in a shop window. He talked dominantly and rushed the social situation; but he was not asserting himself, like a superman in a modern play. He was simply forgetting himself, like a little boy at a party. He had somehow made a giant stride from babyhood to manhood, and missed that crisis in youth when most of us grow old.”
Ah. Brilliant.
Can’t wait to keep reading.
Wholeheartedly agree. Love Chesterton. Am on the verge of getting to his stuff in my big pile o’ books I haven’t had time to read (thanks to MF, who bought me LITERALLY a dozen books for Christmas). But hooking a good one almost always makes me remember why I love literature. I’m wrapped up with “Mere Christianity” on audio at the mo’. LOVE that Lewis.