Books | The Remainder Table

I finally started reading it. The story so far…

It’s narrated by a boy named Henry Randolph Porcher. At the beginning of the story he’s 10, but where I am now, he’s 15. We jumped a few years. I’m assuming it’s going to jump ahead again at some point. It’s set in the south, near Charleston. And early in the 20th C. Where I am now there’s a comment about “you know there’s a war in Europe” and I’m assuming that’s WWI. Earlier, they were still using carriages & cars sounded like “newfangled” items.

Anyhoo– in the beginning Henry has “run away” from home & meets Ilsa Brandes & her father. He spends the day with them because he’s in trouble and he doesn’t want to go home. When they do take him home, they discover the town is on fire & Henry’s house ends up burning down. Henry & family end up living in a hotel somewhere else for 5 years until his mother croaks (literally, think cough, cough, thud) at the ripe old age of 37. Ancient, I tell you! Henry’s family is of the rich, old, inbred sort. They hate Ilsa & her father, because he was in love with one of the clan (Elizabeth), but they wouldn’t let him marry Elizabeth, because he was poor white trash, apparently, so he ran off to Europe and married Ilsa’s mother (who then promptly died in childbirth). Meanwhile, Elizabeth was >gasp< pregnant. Elizabeth is dead, dunno what happened to the baby yet.

So when Henry’s mother dies, they move back to their house, which has been rebuilt so it’s exactly the same as the old one. While they were gone, Ilsa’s father also conveniently died (no cough cough, he died of a mysterious fever), so she’s had to move in with Cousin Anna, who is I think, the only relative Henry likes. Henry’s cousin Monty has his sights set on Ilsa much to the chagrin of Henry’s sister Silver. Henry hates Monty so he’s pissed off on several levels because of course he likes Ilsa.

Well that’s about it so far. Possible controversial bits:

In the opening part, Ilsa & Henry go swimming… without bathing suits (she’s 13, he’s 10).

A lot of oblivious racism w/ regard to how the black characters are portrayed. So far there’s been a chain gang, a bunch of crazy people running away from the fire, and a lot of servants, who all talk with “Gone With the Wind” type phrasing.

I have been getting back into reading mysteries, now that I’ve found some authors who aren’t writing to a script. I’m loving Patricia Highsmith. Right now I’m reading Original Sin by P.D. James. Anyhow– Monday night, I happened to see this BBC movie called “No Night Is Too Long” on Showcase. Total fluke, I was just looking for some background noise, but it was so gripping [even with the distracting obviously-filmed-in-Victoria scenery ;-)], I ended up sitting down and watching the whole thing. Well, I was just so intrigued–and actually hoping to find that they planned to re-air it–that I did some digging and I found out that “No Night Is Too Long” is a book by Barbara Vine (a pseudonym of Ruth Rendell), who apparently is a big mystery/thriller writer. So I’ll have to look for it next time I’m at Chapters.

Speaking of books, I have on my desk a copy of Ilsa by Madeleine L’Engle. Ilsa! I’m all =-O A little background: Ilsa was her second book and it’s never been reprinted, so the only copies out there are the originals from 1946. Sometimes a copy will come up on eBay for $300, but otherwise it’s unavailable. I’ve been looking for it for oh, 20 years, in every library or used bookstore I’ve ever been in. Always nothing. Until a couple months ago. I was at the UBC library catalog, looking for something else, and I thought, hey– and typed in Ilsa. When the title came up, I thought, no, it’ll be something else. But then I clicked and it really was the right book. And it wasn’t even missing! Unfortunately, it was out. And it continued to be out all fall. I know, I could’ve put a hold on it. But I really wanted to be able to walk up to the stacks and take it off the shelf myself (is that crazy?). Anyhow– I finally got my hands on it today. It’s been rebound, but otherwise it’s in good condition, which somehow seems amazing. My speculation is that she hates this book for some reason and has nixed it being reprinted. But I find her earlier books to be riskier and more raw (honest?) than her later ones, so I’m terribly curious about this book, and I can’t wait to read it.

However… our open memo is due on Monday, and I’m a bundle of stress. I have LSLAP tomorrow, and I’ll have to leave Legal Writing early to get there, and I’ll probably end up late anyhow. I also started volunteering for CJFL, doing editing stuff (footnote checking, atm), so I’ve been doing that this week… instead of working on my memo. Well, I did work on the thing all weekend. I did a bit on it tonight, and I have the three hour stretch tomorrow. But damn, I think there’s a class in the computer room–at least there was last week. arghh. That sucks. Okay, guess I better come up with a plan B, in case.