Recently, I heard a radio program in which well-known authors talked about their favourite books, the ones they've read and reread throughout their lives. It made me wonder … what was that book for me? For one of the authors it was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Of course. A classic. But I didn't discover Pride and Prejudice, or many other classics, until well into adulthood.
On reflection, I realised the book I have read and reread and reread again over the past forty years is Lace by Shirley Conran. It was the (southern hemisphere) summer of 1982/83 and I was fifteen years old, living in a provincial city in New Zealand. Between my penultimate and final years of high school I was working multiple casual jobs, as a raspberry picker and a dishwasher and a babysitter. Lace was published in 1982 and quickly became a bestseller. I splurged ($10) to buy the mass-market paperback version and practically inhaled it. Then I read it again to better understand the intricate, detailed plot. I kept rereading it until the paperback disintegrated and I bought the Kindle version! I recently read it yet again.
As the uneducated, untravelled child of uneducated, untravelled parents, I had great, gaping holes in my knowledge of the world. Minimal knowledge of history, geography, languages and cultures. Zero insight into the world of work or feminism or alternative lifestyles (alternative, that is, to working-class, patriarchal heteronormative mediocrity). The book suggested that there were other ways to live one's life than those I'd observed around me. It provided glimpses into other countries and cultures, historical events, industries and workplaces, and the complexities of relationships.
Nowhere near as wholesome as Jane Austen but a vital part of my education. Thank you Shirley Conran. The book still manages to surprise and delight me, even forty years later.
2 comments:
Interesting question. Mine is probably Ruth Park's Playing Beatie Bow. I even took it to Sydney with me one time and read it while visiting the rocks.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I confess I haven't read much by Ruth Park (perhaps because I didn't grow up in Australia) but will try to track this book down. On a separate but weirdly related note, there's a new inclusive playground named after Ruth Park, here in Canberra. Looks fabulous … https://www.act.gov.au/our-canberra/latest-news/2022/october/new-inclusive-playground-open-in-coombs
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