The last time we went to Parliament Hill was in early January, to see the Christmas lights, on and around the Hill. I love how they use the Parliament buildings as a movie screen, whether it's in the winter or summer.
However, it wasn't just the Parliament Hill display that entertained us that evening. Maybe it's because we just don't go out at night anymore, but I was surprised at the many homes that were still lit up for the holidays. All those lights reminded me of Louise Penny and a short but meaningful paragraph from her novel, A Great Reckoning:
" It was now early January. A peaceful time of year, when the cheery lights and wreaths were still up, but there was no longer the pressure of the season. Their fridges and freezers were full of shortbread and fruitcake and turkey casseroles. Their own form of insulation against the winter."
I enjoy Penny's novels for many reasons, but one of them is her ability to summarize something in such a concise and accurate manner. "There was no longer the pressure of the season "
She doesn't go on and on about holiday season decisions and shopping and preparations - the endless job lists going through your head (women's heads?) in December. In a deft manner she simply acknowledges that Christmas brings with it a lot of pressure.
Another example just jumped out at me, in the book I've just started, Kingdom of the Blind. She writes about a man who is living with dementia. "For the last year of his life he no longer recognized family and friends. He was kindly to all, but beamed at some.They were the ones he loved. He knew them instinctively and kept them safe, not in his wounded head but in his heart. The memory of the heart was far stronger that whatever was kept in the mind."
Penny's husband Michael died in 2016. He had dementia, so her knowledge is first- hand. I love her observation about dementia. When we visit my mother in-law, people ask us how she's doing and if she recognizes us. Penny's description here, is very similar to what we experience. She beams at us. We are still in her heart, if not in her mind anymore.
Most of my reading is done at bedtime. It is a comfortable way to end my days, to snuggle under the duvet and resume my travels to the village of Three Pines, where her novels are set.
That is not to say that her stories are predictable. She's not on the bestseller lists because she's predictable. These murder mysteries are riveting and entertaining. I love how her characters develop throughout the series.
To call them murder mysteries is perhaps a disservice They are much more than interesting whodunnits. As Penny herself writes about her books, in the acknowledgements to Kingdom of the Blind, "They're the common yearning for community. For belonging. They're about kindness, acceptance. Gratitude. They're not so much about death, as life. And the consequences of the choices we make."
To date, Louise Penny has written seventeen books in her popular Inspector Gamache series. If I like her books so much, why am I just starting number fourteen? Well, I am reading them slowly and interspersing them with other reading, so that I always have some of her books to look forward to. I don't want to be up to date. It makes me happy to know that I have four left, plus the one that she just wrote with Hilary Rodham Clinton, State of Terror.
And so, on these dark winter evenings, I take comfort in the opportunity to end my days with the characters of Three Pines. They're much more admirable than the characters invading our city this weekend.
I find a lot of comfort in Louise Penny's books. I think she is a lovely person too. I've read them all...but I like your idea of reading them slowly.
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