awake & reading: Remembering
I am absolutely enjoying Wendell Berry's novel,
Remembering. It is the second novel found in the published collection,
Three Short Novels. An excerpt:
"Andy leans, looking at the young man face-to-face. The young man is loosened and easy in his sleep, in his vulnerability unaware, as if in some absolute trust that to Andy is not imaginable. The sleeper has entrusted himself to his defenseless sleep as confidently as a little child to his own bed at home. As if not with his mind but with his shoulder and breastbone, Andy recalls his grandfather's old fingers prodding him through the covers. "Boy? The sun's up." And then, in pity and sorrow: "And you still a-laying in the bed with the daylight in your face." And Andy thinks of himself leaning over his own sleeping son. For a moment he is almost breathless with the thought that if he reached out and touched this man, he would move; he would stir and wake out of his dark sleep to live in this new day that has come.
Three Short Novels, p.159technorati tags: THOSE AWAKE, BOOKS, WENDELL BERRY, REMEMBERING
1 comment:
What a beautifully written passage. I focused in on the line,
"For a moment he is almost breathless with the thought that if he reached out and touched this man, he would move; he would stir and wake out of his dark sleep to live in this new day that has come."
Berry writes, "almost breathless." This makes me wonder what Andy is going through. I haven't read the novel, so I don't know the context, but at first glance it feels like Andy is very aware of the power and importance of awakening, whether he consciously knows it or not.
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