The Bone People
Some books should only be read at night and The Bone People is certainly one of them.
Not because it's scary and requires a midnight atmosphere.
But because there's something incredibly intimate about the way Hulme chose to weave her tale.
From the writing style to the subject matter.
It requires the closeness and privacy of night to mirror the isolation of the story.
It's as if having been shipwrecked you find yourself on the familiar ground of Earth and you may be safe but you are wholly and heartbreakingly alone.
Like reading a page from someone's diary.
Someone you know and care for and who you discover you know very little about.
This story is deeply personal and should be read like a long-kept secret.
I fell hard for this story.
Hulme's style of writing is what first caught my attention.
Actually it was the blurb on Amazon.
I had been perusing the cyber-shelves for new reading material for my Grandpa's birthday and happened upon The Bone People.
(and a few other dozen things, i need supervising near books...even digitally)
I didn't think i'd read it then but i was definitely interested, however i forgot about it almost immediately.
Attention span of a senile goldfish.
But lo and behold, it was sitting happily on our family shelves.
Just waiting for me to devour its pages like a word-hungry succubus.
And i did.
And i'd do it again.
Because reading Hulme's words was like watching a kitten at play.
Always focussed but on six different things at once.
Wild-eyed but acutely concentrated.
Her story is dreamy and fractious and alien and familiar.
And best of all it contained the type of writing i just wanted to unashamedly roll around in.
For days.
It brought to mind a book called Francis Bacon: Incunabula.
This particular book is a collection of all the iconography, newspaper clippings, photographs, literature etc. that Francis Bacon collected and used to create his blindingly sublime artworks.
They identify the origins of his genius.
Incunabula means:
The infancy or earliest stages of something; its beginnings
And to me this relates perfectly to way in which the female lead character of The Bone People speaks and thinks.
She possesses a wealth of knowledge in a myriad of obscure and unexpected things and somehow they prevent her from crumbling apart.
They make her whole and it's something i'm both attracted to and envious of.
To have knowledge is a wonderful quality.
One i wish i had more of.
But it doesn't seem to matter how much i read, i still feel as if i know nothing at all.
I am definitely a Jon Snow.
If only i had a Ghost.
Sob.
Today was ombre, ominous skies.
Freshly planted succulents.
And Idris sitting pretty.
I'm 90% sure he's the reason we're attracting so many black cats at the moment.
Good job, Idris.
You'll make a coven of us yet.
Post a Comment