I’m enjoying reading Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. I’m such a slow reader that it takes a while to get into a book. The good thing now is that I’m in no hurry, I just read books at the rate I do. Also having had such trouble reading as a child, I’m still catching up on the classics. I discovered Henry James only a few years ago and it takes me months to read one of his novels.
In fact I’m glad I read slowly. I savour the words, I linger in the moment. I think I see the world lyrically. I’m hopeless at plot, as if it doesn’t matter as much as the observation. At film school I did observational documentary. Sometimes I feel that I’ve just observed life. Certainly in psychiatry you hear so many stories. I love constructing chronologies and then weaving narratives between various parts. Like the threads to catch a memory of a dream.
Anyway, I’m a slow readier, unlike my sister M who gets through a book a week from her local library. I wonder how much she savours the words and how much those stories impact her own life story. I do think that some people experience emotions more deeply than others. And that in a way relates to a capacity for empathy and emotional intelligence. I find that emotions often catch me unawares as if coming from some deep hidden away part of me. But whatever that part is, it doesn’t seem to be fading with age.
The narratives we construct about our lives are fascinating. Eleanor Oliphant’ story in the first person is (at least to where I’ve got to) very understated, in contrast with the startling delayed exposition. And (so far) it’s full of her observations, of events occurring to other people, not to her. The sheet of medical notes that slips out of her file is full of “lies lies lies”. I remember in the anti-psychiatry days of the 60s, the narratives constructed by professionals about their patients were denigrated as “totalisations”.
I love the autumn and the peace of mind it seems to bring. Time to read, time to try to express myself better. I’ve always been excited by the autumnal promise of new beginnings.