Books on GIF #53 — 'The Violins of Saint-Jacques' by Patrick Leigh Fermor
booksongif.substack.com
Hello everyone! This Sunday's book is 'The Violins of Saint-Jacques' by Patrick Leigh Fermor. Not going to take up much of your time this week, guys. But first a word of warning: I can't really review this book without giving away much of the plot. So if you don't want spoilers, stop here and catch me next week. The narrator, an Englishman traveling through the Greek islands, encounters an elderly French woman, Berthe, while on a stopover. They get to talking, and before long it's siesta time. She offers him a room to nap, and inside it he sees a painting made by Berthe of an island in the Caribbean with a volcano. He asks her about it, saying he had been in the area on a previous voyage. Berthe tells him about her early life on the island in the painting, Saint-Jacques. Her descriptions, with additional information from the narrator, conjure the lush world of the fictitious island during the late French-colonial period. There is so much world building in this little novel that it almost felt like there wasn't going to be a plot. As Berthe's recollections went on and on, I wondered:
Books on GIF #53 — 'The Violins of Saint-Jacques' by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Books on GIF #53 — 'The Violins of…
Books on GIF #53 — 'The Violins of Saint-Jacques' by Patrick Leigh Fermor
Hello everyone! This Sunday's book is 'The Violins of Saint-Jacques' by Patrick Leigh Fermor. Not going to take up much of your time this week, guys. But first a word of warning: I can't really review this book without giving away much of the plot. So if you don't want spoilers, stop here and catch me next week. The narrator, an Englishman traveling through the Greek islands, encounters an elderly French woman, Berthe, while on a stopover. They get to talking, and before long it's siesta time. She offers him a room to nap, and inside it he sees a painting made by Berthe of an island in the Caribbean with a volcano. He asks her about it, saying he had been in the area on a previous voyage. Berthe tells him about her early life on the island in the painting, Saint-Jacques. Her descriptions, with additional information from the narrator, conjure the lush world of the fictitious island during the late French-colonial period. There is so much world building in this little novel that it almost felt like there wasn't going to be a plot. As Berthe's recollections went on and on, I wondered: