Wednesday 15 July 2009

A Stroke of Luck

Earlier today, I found myself doubly at a loss. My wristwatch had mysteriously disappeared, and I don't feel right with a naked wrist. And, on top of that, I'd run out of reading matter, having finished with the excellent Norman Stone and not having another book with me. So, trusting that they sell verything (except books), I took myself to Argos - a much improved store these days - and within minutes I was out again with a watch that had set me back the barely believable sum of £4.98 (full price)! It seems to be a perfectly good watch - I mean, what can go wrong with Quartz? It either works or it doesn't. This left the book situation to deal with, so, on the off chance, I popped into Oxfam. I was just about to give up and leave the shop bookless when I glanced at Q on the fiction shelves - and there was a book I've been looking for ever since I first read it in a library copy years ago: The Yellow Sofa, a wonderfully truthful, ironic, serio-comic novella by the great Portuguese novelist Eca De Queiroz. It's in a Caracanet edition, one of a series of titles under the heading Aspects of Portugal, published under the auspices of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. I never even knew this edition existed. That, I think, classifies as a stroke of luck. Now, what's the time....?

6 comments:

  1. It's in a Caracanet edition, one of a series of titles under the heading Aspects of Portugal, published under the auspices of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation....


    ...which was nice.

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  2. 'It either works or it doesn't?'

    I wish that were true. There's working but a bit slow, working but a bit fast, working but loses an minute an hour... You need to get yourself a Casio Waveceptor. They are the size of a Bible and atomic. They are also cased in steel and make a good makeshift weapon. Trust your Uncle Dick on this, Nige. Quartz is so 1970s. Atomic is now!

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  3. I'll tell you what doesn't work Uncle Dick, and that's the 'clock' on my mobile phones - any of them, one after the other, they always start out right, then gain and gain untill in a few months they're racing ahead. How does that happen?

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  4. Also by Eça, have you read: "The Relic"?

    "The Maias" and "City and the Mountains" are his most famous books, but I couldn't stop laughing while reading "The Relic".

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  5. I haven't read The Relic, Anagrama, but I'll seek it out - Eca can be so funny, among his other gifts. An astonishing writer - he really ought to be much better known.

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  6. Nige, as you're a fan of Prof. Stone I thought you might be interested to read this.

    He doesn't publish often so we must take him wherever we can find him. This lecture incorporates his usual unlikely but telling analogies, odd but revealing facts and amusing but enlightening anecdotes.

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