#30 I think about summer, all the beautiful times//I watched you laughin' from the passenger's side
A review of a show and a book and more
Dear reader,
As I write to you, Taylor Swift’s “Back to December” is playing on repeat in the back of my mind and the images — of heartbroken Conrad Fisher and of Belly and Jeremiah walking together to their car are replaying before my eyes.
For those of you who didn’t get what I said above, The Summer I Turned Pretty (season 1 and 2) is a show which is the screen adaptation of the novels written by Jenny Han. The first two seasons are based on the first two books. Conrad, Belly and Jeremiah are the protagonists. The plot is basically that Laurel and Susannah are best friends and Laurel visits Susannah and her two sons (Conrad and Jeremiah) in Cousins every summer. Belly and Steven are Laurel’s kids who are equally excited to go to Cousins every year and crash at Susannah’s beach house. But,
“You never know the last time you’ll see a place. A person.” — Belly Conklin
I watched the final episode of season 2 yesterday and I can’t get it out of my mind. What are your opinions about the show? I haven’t read the trilogy but have watched the show and I really felt bad for Conrad. His character trait is that he walls himself off and pushes people away. He doesn’t open up or share what he’s feeling, which makes us sympathize with him all the more. But he does care for everyone around him, though others may not recognize that. I liked Chris Briney’s acting and his portrayal of Conrad. Only Conrad’s being a little too reticent is sometimes annoying.
On the other hand, I did not like the character of Belly. In my opinion, she is immature and makes hasty decisions. She punishes Conrad for his actions without considering his circumstances and what he is going through. Nevertheless, I appreciate Lola Tung’s portrayal of Belly.
Also, the theme of friendship runs deep in the show — be it Laurel and Susannah’s friendship, Belly and Taylor’s, or Steven and Conrad’s. They find each other’s support when it is the most sought for.
I loved the play of different kinds of emotions in the series and the emotional tension throughout the show, especially in the second season which was better than the first. And, I am not talking about Jeremiah cuz I don’t feel like it. Of course, I’m team Conrad.
So, whatever thoughts were overflowing, I have tried to pour them out here. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
***
In the below section, you will find my review of A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier which was originally published on the blog of The Incognito Press.
A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier: Book Review
By Anam Tariq
It is 1932 and in the aftermath of the First World War, Violet Speedwell, mourning the loss of her fiancé and brother, is a ‘surplus woman’ — one of many such women who couldn’t find a husband since the War became a reason for the shortage of potential spouses.
“Tolerated with gentle exasperation by families, these women live at a time when society has rigid expectations of what a single woman might do with her life. Violet is about to challenge those restrictions.”
A Single Thread (2019) is a historical novel by Tracy Chevalier set in the twentieth century. It specifically features a detail about the First World War which I had never heard of before and that very aspect urged me to pick up this book. And that detail is the story of surplus women, those single women who were independent, earned a living for themselves, and enjoyed life on their own.
That’s why I relish reading classics and historical fiction. They give you insights about the past times, times which are gone, and which you can never find again. They tell you about sceneries that no longer exist. Like the rural Nebraska depicted by Willa Cather in My Ántonia (1918), before the coming of technology, war, and urban expansion.
A Single Thread is about the journey of Violet as she navigates the world as a single woman, at a time when spinsters were looked down upon. She represents how single women can also celebrate life as much as their married counterparts.
Violet moves to the city of Winchester to work and falls in with the broderers, a group of women embroidering kneelers and cushions for the city’s cathedral. There she finds friends and a community.
Apart from the story of Violet the novel also features explicit descriptions of the English landscape and the art of embroidery. The language of the literary work is in itself beautiful which reminds me of the Aesthetic movement of the late nineteenth century that stressed on the notion “art for art’s sake”, that is, there is no relation between art and morality. Art is in itself exquisite and need not essentially convey a moral message. Aestheticism focussed on constant striving for beauty, escapism through literary and visual arts, craftsmanship and merging the arts of various media. I find all these characteristics in the works of Chevalier.
Her books focus more on the ornateness of language, the delineations, imagery, technique, and giving details about other media of arts as well (for instance the details about the art of embroidery in this novel). She is more about enjoying the literary work of art as an entity rather than giving a moral message. Check out this one instance where she captures the art of embroidery:
“She moved a kneeler … and studied it. It was a rectangle about nine by twelve inches with a mustard-coloured circle like a medallion in the centre surrounded by a mottled field of blue. The medallion design was of a bouquet of branches with chequer-capped acorns amongst blue-green foliage. Chequered acorns had been embroidered in the four corners as well. The colours were surprisingly bright, … It reminded Violet of the background of mediaeval tapestries with their intricate millefleurs arrangement of leaves and flowers.”
Further, Chevalier elucidates the English landscape and the countryside as she portrays Violet taking a solo walking trip through England during vacation:
“Violet gazed out over the rolls of land swelling before her, painted in myriad shades of green and yellow and brown, the sun and sky washing over it all. The English countryside was indeed glorious. But there was also a certain oppressiveness about it in August. The waves of heat just above the ground, the overbright sun, the stillness, the yellowed fields of wheat and hay and barley, the clumps of trees where the green had peaked…”
And so, I would call A Single Thread a light, handsome read serving as a means of escape from other dreary things that might be cluttering your mind.
Verse
1. “Poem” by Ron Padgett
I’m in the house. It’s nice out: warm sun on cold snow. First day of spring or last of winter. My legs run down the stairs and out the door, my top half here typing
2. “Knives are Out for the good hearts” by Anam Tariq
This poem of mine appeared in the 3rd issue of the Hungarian literary magazine, The Globe Review.
A minority scattered—salt in the food —over the globe. Good hearts are the ruby, emerald, topaz, holding in them a gifted glint and glimmer in a society of stones where the rigid, under-privileged rocks– the daunting, unfair other. The rocks that turned hard grey in spite and envy for the gem. Hurtful the spikes of jibes hurled and hefty the advantage taken, the rocks try to bequeath on themselves what rightly remains with the righteous. While the gem only beautifies the wearer giving away nevertheless. A gem still remains a jewel in the eyes of the beholder, its purity conceded, revered. Coveted forever, through the generations, resting in a casket while the rocks waste their stiffness unmissed upon the desert air. Persisting to pick the flowers of the fair path, you are oftentimes by the divine onto it steered (Marta instinctively sought the correct vial despite the knave's mixup) when you choose to have a good heart. Note: It is an after poem of the poet's favorite movie - Knives Out (2019), which has been referred to in the title and the twenty-seventh line.
Quotes
I did not begin them by thinking I had a good subject for a novel. I began them by thinking that I had discovered important truths about the world that required communication.
— Jane Smiley on writing her novels, 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel
Secrets are sometimes revealed from the most unexpected places.
— Anam Tariq
What I found on the internet
This interesting quote from The Alipore Post: “I’ve been thinking about how bringing a kitten into my life has changed me. There’s the obvious layers of unconditional love and responsibility, which I’m learning anew. But there’s also this warm, fuzzy feeling of a new phase of my life beginning. And by default, a shedding of the old self, which for the first time in my life, doesn’t feel like a loss.”
This short piece by Anaïs Nin:
Maryam from
interviewed a calligrapher in her latest issue.
Bulletin board
Moss Puppy Mag is open for submissions till October 1st. Here are some interesting prompts from them:
Submit letters, thoughtful articles, essays, etc. to Bohemian Dialogue through this link.
Know about literary substacks at
:
Thank you for reading The Wordsridge Newsletter!
It’s August and it isn’t possible that I don’t part with this:
But I can see us lost in the memory
August slipped away into a moment in time
'Cause it was never mine
— Taylor Swift
Love
Anam
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I felt bad for Conrad too🥺 team conrad🤝