Gone!

 

 

 

For those who might be wondering - Magnus Merriman went back to the libray this morning. I made a heroic effort yesterday and finished it. It was a great relief finally to reach page 308 and see 'The End'

 

I'm not saying it's a bad book, because it really isn't but what I am saying is that it's not my sort of book. It's a comic novel, and  in conjunction those two words  tend to strike fear into my reading heart. It may be a gender thing; I never really understood why people thought so highly of Tom Sharpe, or indeed Kingsley Amis, but plenty did and do. And most of them were male.

 

I did get the occasional smile out of MM, but not often enough to make the experience of reading it an enjoyable one. Or to encourage me to read any more Eric Linklater.

 

But it's another block on my quilt that's got filled in. As it happens it's one of those unsightly blocks that you place on the edge of the quilt and then on the side of the bed away from the door so that the casual observer doesn't see the eye watering colours and garish pattern . And  - you see that acid yellow, badly placed stripe? That represents the way Linklater, and all those who have written about this book, wrote about Rose. If ever a book needed a bit of feminist critique applying to it, it's this one.