First Book of the New Year
It’s nothing earth-shattering, but I enjoyed Samuel Shellabarger’s Tolbecken last night. Shellabarger wrote historical novels like Captain from Castille and I’ve enjoyed his books as pleasant distractions with fun plotlines and thoughtful treatment of historical ideas and events. Tolbecken is one of his better books (and they are all good stuff), and I found myself crying as I finished it. I joke about becoming sentimental in my old age, but I actually think my tears were the opposite of sentimentality. The more I live, the more perilous life becomes. The choices really are life-altering; the consequences dire. The sacrifices are really heroic; the story epic. And so, reading of tragedies, even minor ones, or reading of losses that would devastate me: I weep.