If the book is half as beautiful as your response to it, I'm in for a treat. That was a very lovely read, and I'm also now thinking of my dear Grandad. I'm going to order myself a copy from my local bookshop, Cogito Books in Hexham, this week.
Such a beautiful review that’s made me want to buy this book tomorrow along with October October and you can’t say fairer than that. I’ve been consumed by grief just this weekend, all the more so because my passing friend was only thirty-six. She was a wonderful artist who I think would have appreciated this book as she concerned herself very creatively with communal coping mechanisms towards grief and spent much of her time on Earth intricately making work. I’ll get this as a homage to her, a help to understand more deeply her zest for life and a salve of the deep indigo blues I feel right now 💙
I must read this book. I am here in my indigo summer, washed over with grief, an intense, physical grief, swimming in the dark blue water, my dead people all around me. Thank you for sharing this gorgeous essay that reminds me I am not alone in this world.
Jul 10, 2023·edited Jul 10, 2023Liked by The Unhurried Reader
Thank for introducing me to An Indigo Summer (which I've now ordered), as well as the many other books you've pointed me towards. I've been reading a lot of books by women writers or artists in which the balance between creativity and motherhood is hard won at best (Rachel Kusk's A Life's Work, Sara Ruhl's 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write, Tanya Shadrick's beautiful The Cure for Sleep, Julie Phillip's brilliant The Baby on the Fire Escape), which has also been the case for me, so I'm intrigued by this: "Orrell recalls lovingly a childhood surrounded by her mother’s creative output, so completely integrated into their lives that she came to see art and nurturing motherhood as mutually expressive..."
Thank you for this thoughtful essay, and all your previous posts. I've just finished Ben Short's Burn after reading about it here, and found it enormously moving.
If the book is half as beautiful as your response to it, I'm in for a treat. That was a very lovely read, and I'm also now thinking of my dear Grandad. I'm going to order myself a copy from my local bookshop, Cogito Books in Hexham, this week.
"A Russet apple of a man." Lovely.
Such a beautiful review that’s made me want to buy this book tomorrow along with October October and you can’t say fairer than that. I’ve been consumed by grief just this weekend, all the more so because my passing friend was only thirty-six. She was a wonderful artist who I think would have appreciated this book as she concerned herself very creatively with communal coping mechanisms towards grief and spent much of her time on Earth intricately making work. I’ll get this as a homage to her, a help to understand more deeply her zest for life and a salve of the deep indigo blues I feel right now 💙
What a wonderful review. So many threads here that are woven into my own work. I'll order the book now. Thank you.
Thanks for the nudge on insta to read this book as it had been waiting on the shelf. What a wonderful read it is and so is your review! Thank you.
Thank you for a beautiful essay. And such wonderful words about your grandfather 💙
I must read this book. I am here in my indigo summer, washed over with grief, an intense, physical grief, swimming in the dark blue water, my dead people all around me. Thank you for sharing this gorgeous essay that reminds me I am not alone in this world.
Thank for introducing me to An Indigo Summer (which I've now ordered), as well as the many other books you've pointed me towards. I've been reading a lot of books by women writers or artists in which the balance between creativity and motherhood is hard won at best (Rachel Kusk's A Life's Work, Sara Ruhl's 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write, Tanya Shadrick's beautiful The Cure for Sleep, Julie Phillip's brilliant The Baby on the Fire Escape), which has also been the case for me, so I'm intrigued by this: "Orrell recalls lovingly a childhood surrounded by her mother’s creative output, so completely integrated into their lives that she came to see art and nurturing motherhood as mutually expressive..."
Thank you for this thoughtful essay, and all your previous posts. I've just finished Ben Short's Burn after reading about it here, and found it enormously moving.
Colour is so powerful and indigo is worthy of being written about at length - this book sounds fascinating. Thankyou for sharing your response to it.
Thank you for this. I hope you'll let me know what you think of the book when you've read it. I'm always curious.