How to use this Page

The old-fashioned kind,* with paper and stamps and fountain pens, even scratchy-nibbed ones.

You can blame this list on Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray, who recently compared John Hall’s Correspondence to 84, Charing Cross Road:

“…in that it’s an epistolary novel about books but it’s much more informative. A retired bank clerk finds a cache of letters from his great great grandfather from Dickens, Eliot, Thackeray, etc and enters into an email correspondence with Christie’s about selling them. Over the course of the months that follow he not only learns more about his ancestor but the literary greats themselves. As someone who never spent time with literature before it’s all a bit of a brave new world and he enjoys seeing what he missed. I liked all of that – a lot actually – it was only in the end that it sort of dropped off a bit. I thought there was a real friendship between the retiree and Christie’s seller he’d been emailing but it’s almost like Nash wasn’t sure how to end it. (Of course CHARING CROSS ROAD is the model for perfect endings -sad but brilliant.) Still a good read but a bit shy of wonderful.”

—Which immediately and overwhelmingly filled me with nostalgic affection for Charing Cross Road and for my first year in New York City. I don’t remember how I came across Helene Hanff’s wonderful collection of letters, but I first read it right after I moved to New York, and my early experiences there were highly colored by Hanff’s book. I remember taking it to Central Park and attempting to identify all the flowers she mentioned in the passage about the Shakespeare Garden.

After Colleen’s post, I simply had to read 84, Charing Cross Road again, but I couldn’t find my old copy. The new (used) one arrived today, and it’s a wonder I am here writing at all—the first page swept me right back in. 1949, Saturday Review of Literature, underlined typewritten titles, a request-by-mail to an overseas seller of out-of-print books: it’s impossible not to read the opening letter without a wry awareness of the difference between the way Miss Hanff seeks to obtain her yearned-for old books, and the way I rapidly and effortlessly obtained my copy of hers. Click, click, click, and two days later a man in brown places a copy on my doorstep. Marvelously convenient, but no hope of the slowly unfolding relationship between thoughtful and humorous minds like the one that develops between Miss Hanff and the London bookseller. What we have instead, today, is this—an online community of booklovers, a set of relationships that develop over time in comment boxes. And you know I relish it, am glad to live in this particular now.

But oh! just savor—

Sir:

(It feels witless to keep writing “Gentlemen” when the same solitary soul is obviously taking care of everything for me.)

Savage Landor arrived safely and promptly fell open to a Roman dialogue where two cities had just been destroyed by war and everybody was being crucified and begging passing Roman soldiers to run them through and end the agony. It’ll be a relief to turn to Aesop and Rhodope where all you have to worry about is a famine. I do love secondh

Add a Comment

Add a Comment

Woodson, Jacqueline. 2010. Peace, Locomotion. Read by Dion Graham. Brilliance Audio.
(about 2 hours on CD, mp3 download, or Playaway)

Peace, Locomotion continues the story of Lonnie Collins Motion (or Locomotion) first begun in Locomotion.  After their parents perished in a fire, Lonnie and his sister, Lili were sent to separate foster homes. Years have passed.  Lonnie is now twelve and although they miss each other, both have settled in to their new homes.

Locomotion was a novel written in verse, as Lonnie learned the forms of poetry from a caring teacher.  Peace, Locomotion is an epistolary novel, consisting of letters from Lonnie to Lili as he  endeavors to chronicle his feelings, his memories of their earlier life together, and the daily occurrences of his new life.  He saves the letters in the hope that when he is someday reunited with Lili, he can relive and share with her each day that they were apart.  He struggles with the fact that his younger sister begins to call her foster mother, Momma, and can barely remember their parents.  One of his friends is moving away, his teacher is mean, and he does poorly on tests and homework.  At home, he has another problem.  One of his foster mother's sons is serving in the war (the listener does not know if it is the war in Afghanistan or Iraq) and things are not going well.  Lonnie is tempted to pray for Jenkins' safe return but his foster brother Rodney suggests that he pray for peace instead - explaining,  if peace comes, all things will follow.  In spite of the many obstacles that life has placed in Lonnie's path, he remains positive and thoughtful, never quick to draw conclusions or pass judgment. He finds joy in a church choir, a snowball fight, a good friend.  He is kind and wise beyond his years.  Although this is a story about African American families, it could be about any family in similar circumstances.  It is a story about hope and family and finding peace wherever one may.

The challenge of narrating a novel consisting of letters from only one person is a great one, and Dion Graham's reading rises to the test. He is superb. Graham perfectly captures the many moods of Lonnie Collins Motion with precision, never exaggeration.  The listener can hear a smile begin to spread across Lonnie's lips,  tears well up in his eyes, a sparkle light up his face. Lonnie recounts conversations within his letters, allowing Graham to create character voices of Lili, Lonnie's friends, and his foster family; but Locomotion is the star of this novel and all ears are upon him.  Highly recommended for middle grades.

Peace, Locomotion was named a 2010 Odyssey Honor Audiobook, and was named to ALSC's 2010 Notable Children's Recordings.

Listen to an excerpt here.

Penguin Young Readers offers a free downloadable discussion guide.

Add a Comment