The most perfect books to read and re-read while quarantined
Because these books deserve to be shared in good company.
As the world shut down in March and we all found ourselves turning inward — and needing new outlets for imagination and travel — I thought of the books that I’ve read and re-read, both as a reader and as a parent with a young son. Some are well known, others less so, and I’m so thankful that the writing fates led me to them. They continue to bring new joy, insights, laughter, wisdom, and love each time I read them.
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
This is not Durrels in Corfu, which is loosely based on this book. This is Gerald Durrel’s account as a young child becoming a naturalist, with a naturalist’s eye and deep love of all living creatures — and lampooning his family at the same time and with the same love and interest, including his older brother Laurence Durrell who went on to write the Alexandria Quartet among many other books. Bohemian writers and artists make appearances but are never really named as much as caricatured, and the attempts at sanity in a family of five, with one exasperated mother.
I read it to my son in a fit of jet lag at 3 a.m. when he was six and I will never forget the sound of his laughter (and mine) as we read and read through the night. And some of the descriptions of Greece, while written with a colonial gaze and bordering on florid writing, are incredibly beautiful and linger long after you’ve closed the page. I would welcome a party with the Durrels and the shy and wise Theodore and other friends any time. My son (now 13) and I re-read it at least once a year until this year…which reminds me….
Winter Holiday (Swallows and Amazons series) by Arthur Ransome
These stories are famous to some, completely unknown to others, and deserving of our time and attention. And such a beautiful world to travel to. They are the perfect mix of quiet, ordinary, descriptive and adventure. Don’t allow the slowness to fool you — settle in for the slowness, and slow down with the children of the story as they prove they are skilled enough to sail the lakes on their own, solve mysteries, make mistakes and repair what becomes broken. Winter Holiday is a particularly good read to share right now — to imagine the lake as the arctic, and the children communicate in semaphore while one of their captains, Nancy Blackett, is in quarantine for the mumps. As the children calculate how long they can postpone a return to school so they can adventure in their ‘arctic,’ you are calculating along with them and hoping they will be allowed to stay in the Lakes for their trek to the North Pole.
Ransome and J.R.R. Tolkien were admirers of one another’s work. Ransome famously sent a review of The Hobbit to Tolkien, prompting Tolkien to write a response that explains more about his writing process than many other sources. But if you have any doubts, let Tokien be the one to convince you:
I am sure Mr Baggins would agree in words such as he he [sic] used to Thorin — to have been fancied by you, that is more than any hobbit could have expected…My reputation will go up with my children — the eldest are now rather to be classed as ‘men’, but on their shelves, winnowed of the chaff left behind in the nursery, I notice that their ‘Ransomes’ remain…(more here)
Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson
I love the Moomin series. Each book has a different feeling, almost like different seasons, while keeping the core of its language and setting and rhythms whole. These are not simply cartoons — which are perfect in their own right — nor are they fanciful stories for kids. These were written for adults who understand melancholy and suffering in life, and yet continue on with hope that isn’t optimistic, as much as there simply is no alternative. Moominland Midwinter, particularly, is the perfect story for right now: the main character finds himself awake during winter hibernation and discovers a quiet, unnerving world that is unfamiliar and lonely. With his family unable to wake, Moomintroll finds some small courage to explore the strange frozen landscape and finds a few others who are awake but usually can’t be seen when it’s not winter — and understands that their difference is what can help him to enjoy solitude and the dark and quiet of winter. Never moralistic, Jansson’s story reminds that suffering is as much a part of life as the spring and joys that come at other times. It doesn’t ever make the suffering less, but the recognition and acceptance, within a story of charming creatures who look out for one another in unexpected ways, is incredibly moving and reassuring.
Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
While it’s an obvious one, I’m not sure that a more perfect story has ever been written. From the care in the story — that size and circumstance is deceiving, and that friendship above all is the true success and joy of life — to the language used to tell the story, its simple beauty holds up with every re-read. Its love and language are perfect, and is a book to be reminded of and shared aloud often.
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Similar to Charlotte’s Web, an obvious one, but almost so obvious that too often it is overlooked for Lord of the Rings and the ‘adult’ longform read of Tolkien’s world. But The Hobbit, like Charlotte’s Web, is the most perfect story: the craft, the language, the characters, the resolution. It leaves nothing out, and adds nothing in that doesn’t need to be there — and that’s why its perfection is too often overshadowed by the length and breadth of Tolkien’s other works.
The Picnic by Gerald Durrell
Another hilarious short story by Durell that finds the family reunited after WWII in England. Trying to indulge Larry’s return after more than a decade away with something that will remind him of what is English, they venture on a picnic, should the weather hold. This is a laugh-out loud story that sets you back with the family and their sardonic humor, with a few new additions, and will have anyone you share it with laughing uproariously. Which we all need right now.
Why I live at the PO by Eudora Welty
While many of Eudora Welty’s short stories are jewels of language, the humor and tone of Why I Live at the P.O. is dry, hilarious, and never stops. It needs to be read aloud to share the laughter. The humor is dry, the family nearly rivals the Durrells in eccentricity, and the irreverence is really perfect.
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. LeGuin
I came to this book later in life and am so thankful my son found it earlier in his. The quiet of the language and setting, in the midst of adventure and quest, is beautiful and profound, leaving images and ideas to think about long after you have stepped away from its shores. And that sometimes our battles are within, rather than without, seems timely. The Norwegian writer Karl Ove Knausgaard was apparently given this book when he was 12 and it completely changed the world for him. I agree — it is a life-changing kind of a book, a classic that is more concerned with confronting the demons within each of us, and with breaking expectations rather than following a well-worn path.
