Literary Lapses
Literary Lapses is one of my favourite books by Stephen Leacock (a great Canadian author). It also describes the state of my own literary escapades. I haven’t read a book since this summer. That all changed this Christmas. My father gave a book to my brother and I to share. My brother won first read at the book in a rousing round of rock-paper-scissors. Of course, I am fairly sure he didn’t actually want to read the book.
So, after presents and before Christmas dinner, I picked it up and began reading Desperate Voyage (John Caldwell): the story of a man desperate to get from America to Australia to see his wife after World War II. The only way he can find is to buy a sailing boat and cross the Pacific … alone and with only a few months before hurricane season. Did I mention he doesn’t know how to sail? After passing through a hurricane, losing his mast, starvation and shipwreck, he eventually makes it home to see his love.
I too know nothing of sailing and little of the sea. It is not something that particularly interests me. I think what caused me to read the approximately 350 pages in twenty-four hours is the drive and motivation summed up in the last two paragraphs of the book:
And then I saw Mary. I remember her coming toward me — and I believe I moved to meet her. For a second I saw her unfathomable blue eyes…. She was in my arms … a thousand dreams had come true … my trials on the sea were far away.
I can’t describe that moment any more than you could. At such a time you live too fast for description in mere words. What mattered then was that I was home from the seas … back again with the one person who counts in this world.
