I'm not sure what made me want to read this book now - Louise Penny has been hanging out on the edges of my consciousness for some time. I'm so glad I got around to reading it; I love it.
What I appreciate about this novel is the wide variety of topics Penny touches on in the course of the story. One is the shifting emotional dynamic of a marriage; another is Quebecois separatism; another is art and antiques; another is the difficulty of coming out as a teenager discovers his homosexuality; another is the difficulty of mentoring a young know-it-all.
I have a friend who loves this series and says that she loves Inspector Gamache. It's interesting; there are never any detective series about detectives who put their careers above finding the correct answer. Inspector Gamache is no exception to this rule; at one point he refuses to arrest a man whom he thinks is innocent and is forced to accept a suspension as a result.
The acknowledgments that Penny, a journalist, prefaced her novel with are perhaps more interesting than the book itself: as she thanks her husband and her friends she's quite candid about how her single-minded focus and need for support might have made her a selfish friend, or at least a needy one. And, she explains that she had won an award from other authors for her unpublished manuscript which made the eventual publication of Still Life possible.
8/30/15
I saw Louise Penny interviewed by Terry Tazioli on Well Read, an author interview show on PBS (produced in Seattle), about a month ago. Penny said several things I found very interesting. One was that when she was working on Still Life, she anticipated writing a series and figured, since she was going to spend so much time with her lead character, Inspector Gamache, she thought she should make him someone she would enjoy. Later she realized that Inspector Gamache was a lot like her husband.
She also told Tazioli that her aim in writing Still Life was to show that there was still good in the world. I thought that was so surprising, in a way, because revealing the murderer shows the reality of evil, doesn't it? I may not understand. But a quality that Still Life has is that it celebrates friendship and connection.
What I appreciate about this novel is the wide variety of topics Penny touches on in the course of the story. One is the shifting emotional dynamic of a marriage; another is Quebecois separatism; another is art and antiques; another is the difficulty of coming out as a teenager discovers his homosexuality; another is the difficulty of mentoring a young know-it-all.
I have a friend who loves this series and says that she loves Inspector Gamache. It's interesting; there are never any detective series about detectives who put their careers above finding the correct answer. Inspector Gamache is no exception to this rule; at one point he refuses to arrest a man whom he thinks is innocent and is forced to accept a suspension as a result.
The acknowledgments that Penny, a journalist, prefaced her novel with are perhaps more interesting than the book itself: as she thanks her husband and her friends she's quite candid about how her single-minded focus and need for support might have made her a selfish friend, or at least a needy one. And, she explains that she had won an award from other authors for her unpublished manuscript which made the eventual publication of Still Life possible.
8/30/15
I saw Louise Penny interviewed by Terry Tazioli on Well Read, an author interview show on PBS (produced in Seattle), about a month ago. Penny said several things I found very interesting. One was that when she was working on Still Life, she anticipated writing a series and figured, since she was going to spend so much time with her lead character, Inspector Gamache, she thought she should make him someone she would enjoy. Later she realized that Inspector Gamache was a lot like her husband.
She also told Tazioli that her aim in writing Still Life was to show that there was still good in the world. I thought that was so surprising, in a way, because revealing the murderer shows the reality of evil, doesn't it? I may not understand. But a quality that Still Life has is that it celebrates friendship and connection.
Hi! I just found your comment at Passage Paradis. Thx so much for visiting. I do not read nearly as much as I should or would like to, but I will definitely be back to see what you're reading. I'm hoping you'll convince me of something irresistible. xo!
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