THE BAY OF NOON

The Bay of Noon by Shirley Hazzard - Just because I didn't love this little novel doesn't mean that someone else might not love it. I thought to abandon it, but there was something about it that kept me going. What was it? About halfway through, I looked at the original publishing date, because there was something off about this detailed oh so English wordy writing. Yup! I was right! Originally published in 1970! Knowing that somehow made it better. This is the story of Jenny, a young Englishwoman living in post war Naples, Italy (post World War II for anyone who might not deduce the same). She is very verbal, to the point of annoyance, but there is something about the time and circumstance and descriptions of the people and their doings. Something. Here's an example of the writing: "The shifts of reason I have described, the moods and incidents that shaded or illumined our four lives, occupied a tiny fraction, only, of the many hours and days given over to my work on that report - hours and days during which I, along with others, converted sheaves and rolls and heavy piles of paper from a foreign language into a form of English that was in it's way more alien to us." If you want to read sentences like that, some of which include conversations, then this might be the read for you. Otherwise, I'll probably not pick up another Shirley Hazzard book.