It’s May. On your screened porch.
A warm breeze carries the fragrance of
lilacs from around the corner.
Your favorite cold drink sits on the table
next to you.
With your feet up, you are deep into your
favorite May book, Frenchman’s Creek,
by Daphne du Maurier.
That’s my May tradition, anyhow. Listen:
“All the whispers and echoes from a past that is gone teem into the sleeper’s brain, and he is with them, and part of them; part of the sea, the ship, the walls of Navron House, part of a carriage that rumbles and lurches in the rough roads of a carriage that rumbles and lurches in the rough roads of Cornwall, part even of that lost forgotten London, artificial, painted, where link-boys carried flares, and tipsy gallants laughed at the corner of a cobbled mud-splashed street.
He sees Harry in his satin coat, his spaniels at his heels, blundering into Dona’s bedroom, as she places the rubies in her ears. He sees William with his button mouth, his small inscrutable face. And last he sees La Mouette at anchor in a narrow twisting stream, he sees the trees at the water’s edge, he hears the heron and the curlew cry, and lying on his back asleep he breathes and lives the lovely folly of that lost midsummer which first made the creek a refuge and a symbol of escape.”
Don’t you just want to be there
and find out who is escaping from what?
I do. And so every May with very few exceptions
I read Daphne du Maurier’s wonderful book.
Maybe I see myself as Dona, the main character.
She’s turning thirty, married with two small
children. It’s summer in 1800’s London and
she’s hot and bored, and so decides to escape
to her country home without her husband
(gasp!)
What ensues involves a pirate, plundering, and sex romance.
What more could you want?
Except that it’s exceptionally well written
and so instead of lustful drivel,
it’s suitable for people with a brain.
Why do I read it every year in May?
May is my favorite month and this book is
that little bit of escape into another world and time.
I very seldom read a book twice, but this
one I’m glad to oblige.
Here is a short list of some of my other favorites:
Until They Bring the Streetcars Back, by Stanley Gordon West*
(yes, it’s a children’s book, but great for adults too)
*Denotes a Minnesota author
This is only a partial list, but some of my all-time favorites are here.
Don’t worry. You don’t have to wait until May.
You can cozy up with a good book to read at your leisure
no matter where your screened porch is.
