n  Some say that a person becomes his circumstances. Or, at least, that someone's circumstances make them who they are.n Because it's enough to only thrust someone into an unfamiliar, different environment, and they seem to become a whole different person. n  Have you had this happen to you? Have you ever felt how when you go on vacation, you're suddenly so much more emotionally stable, mature and perhaps more like you've always wanted to be?n Or is it the contrary – maybe you're prone to wandering around aimlessly, without knowing what your days are even supposed to be about now, now that you don't have the routine of work around you, so handy in grounding you and helping you remember who you are? n  So it's just like I said, your circumstances make a great part of who you are, whether you're consciously aware of this or not. And in a way, this is what The Enchanted April is about – among other things.n

n  The Enchanted April is about four women who could not possibly be any more different from each other, getting put in the same, let's say, somewhat heavenly circumstances of a spring in an Italian castle in the countryside.n Each has her own emotional baggage – and make of that what you will. Some of them will instantly clue into what's happening to themselves and others. Some will keep trying to lie to even their very own selves for a long as possible – to maintain the status quo. What follows is a colorful dance of coincidences, emotions and conclusions. n  The Enchanted April is an incredible window into the condition of having a human soul and learning to figure out how to use one without a manual. With a couple of laughs along the way.n

To read the full review, visit my blog here.

n  n

Read Full Review on the Blog | Themed Bookstagram | Quick Update Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter

“Because always pain had been close at hand in that other happiness, ready to torture with doubts, to torture even with the very excess of her love; while this was the simple happiness of complete harmony with her surroundings, the happiness that asks for nothing, that just accepts, just breathes, just is.”

The perfect book to read during the month of April, The Enchanted April is an enchanting little book that focuses on the transformation of four strangers who decide, on a whim, to rent San Salvatore, a castle in full bloom on the Italian Riveria. This is the perfect spring story brimming with pure happiness and transformation as we watch these women find themselves and bloom again (or for the first time) after spending so many years preoccupied with other matters. In direct contrast to dreary England, Italy, with it’s beautiful wisteria and new flowers blooming every week, is a place for a subtle transformation that takes place when one is at peace with oneself and one’s surroundings. My edition had an excellent introduction by Salley Vickers and I find that this quote from her introduction; “Joy, mirth, sympathy and kindness are magical in their effects, and it does no harm in our cynical and materialistic age to be reminded that we have it in us to enjoy these states of mind and exercise these powers.” sums up the sentiment of this book perfectly. It is so lovely to see a book that is just happy and I had a lot of fun and peace whilst reading it.

“May scorched and withered; March was restless, and could be hard and cold in its brightness; but April came along softly like a blessing, and if it were a fine April it was so beautiful that it was impossible not to feel different, not to feel stirred and touched.”

This is primarily a story of the transformation of our four strangers as they stay in San Salvatore. We follow the timid Mrs Wilkins, the overworked Mrs Arbuthnot, the judgmental Mrs Fisher, and the stuck-up Lady Caroline as the atmosphere of San Salvatore transforms them at different rates and in different ways. There is such joy and beauty in reading this book that really does just exemplify how important rest and relaxation is. I don’t want to say much about any of the women because their transformation really is the meat of this story, but there is a common theme of just letting go. The act of freeing oneself from the constraints places upon them is an act that creates immeasurable joy and peace. The women perfectly balanced each other and their transformations were staggered in a way that kept me interested in the story. I found myself smiling often at this book, a lot of the time when watching the women become the happiest versions of themselves.

“Strange how easily even the greatest men were moved by exteriors.”

While I did find some comic relief in the addition of the men, they were ultimately disappointing (but maybe that was the point?). I’m just going to say it: Mrs Arbuthnot deserved better. As did Lady Caroline. Before the men were introduced, I found there to be some poignant explorations of Mrs Arbuthnot coming to terms with not having to dedicate her whole life to servitude and finally opening the doors to love her husband and I was so excited to see that reunion take place. Additionally, I found Lady Catherine being able to be in a place where she wasn’t constantly harassed by men because they felt that they were entitled to her beauty. I was pretty happy with where both of these were going and how being able to fully be themselves without expectation—internal or external—that had been put on them for so long. While the men were used to show how the ways in which the women had changed and how they now responded to things differently, the insertion of them broke this ideal of paradise for me as none of them really changed into better/happier people. While the women were forgiving, happy, and loving the men still only loved the women when they could give them something or do something for them. Their love felt so transactional and shallow compared to this friendship that we were only just beginning to explore. I felt myself losing interest in the book as the men invaded and the serene spell of San Salvator quickly crumbled before me. Maybe that’s the point, but it still made me a bit sad to say goodbye so soon.

“They had lived for a while in the very heart of poetry.”

While this book didn’t stick the landing for me, I was enamored with the vast majority of it. Von Armin created the most exquisite atmosphere that exuded beauty and serenity. Reading this felt as though I was wading through a dream land and I was always disappointed when I had to put it down. My new goal in life is to find a beautiful Italian villa (or castle, fingers crossed) by the sea and rent it out with a bunch of people I don’t know that well (any takers?) because I am now convinced that that will completely transform my life (no husbands randomly showing up near the end of the vacation allowed, I don’t want a repeat of the end of this book, serious inquiries only). Thank you, emma for joining me on this magical journey. I hope this made you want to go to Italy and relive a version of this book as much as it made me.

4.5 ★

The Enchanted April is an enchanting book!

Within the first couple of paragraphs I knew it was the book for me! I am still in Lockdown and I needed something that would help me escape the world's frightening realities. & mostly set in one of my favourite countries - what could be better?

Answer - not much!

A chance spotting of an advertisement leads to two virtual strangers, Lottie & Rose, deciding to rent an Italian castle together & have a month's escape from their dull, unhappy lives. The rent proves to be much more than they had envisaged, so they advertise and find two other ladies, the waspish, selfish Mrs Fisher and the self absorbed Lady Caroline. in different ways the ladies are transformed by their experiences and the beauty that they are living amongst. Von Arnim herself was supposed to be a very keen gardener and her love of plants shows in every word.

n  

n   

n      n        n      n   

n  

n

n  All down the stone steps on either side were periwinkles in full flower, and she could now see what it was that had caught at her the night before and brushed, wet and scented, across her face. It was wisteria. Wisteria and sunshine . . . she remembered the advertisement. Here indeed were both in profusion. The wisteria was tumbling over itself in its excess of life, its prodigality of flowering; and where the pergola ended the sun blazed on scarlet geraniums, bushes of them, and nasturtiums in great heaps, and marigolds so brilliant that they seemed to be burning, and red and pink snapdragons, all outdoing each other in bright, fierce colour. The ground behind these flaming things dropped away in terraces to the sea, each terrace a little orchard, where among the olives grew vines on trellises, and fig-trees, and peach-trees, and cherry-trees. The cherry-trees and peach-trees were in blossom--lovely showers of white and deep rose-colour among the trembling delicacy of the olives; the fig-leaves were just big enough to smell of figs, the vine-buds were only beginning to show. And beneath these trees were groups of blue and purple irises, and bushes of lavender, and grey, sharp cactuses, and the grass was thick with dandelions and daisies, and right down at the bottom was the sea. Colour seemed flung down anyhow, anywhere; every sort of colour piled up in heaps, pouring along in rivers....n

n  

n    n      n    n  

n

I knocked of half a ★ because I wasn't totally convinced by the resolution of some of storylines, but if you want to remember Italy in happier times or simply want an escape from grim reality, this could be the book for you!

n  

n   

n      n        n      n   

n  

n

https://wordpress.com/view/carolshess...

Four proper English ladies, who don't know each other at all, decide to pool their resources and rent an Italian villa for a month, in the 1920's. They all have different personalities and there are some conflicting expectations. To make matters worse, the husband of one of the women, who has had an estranged marriage, shows up pursuing one of the other women, without realizing his wife is another of the guests. How can this possibly not go south really fast?


I saw the movie version of this book when it came out about 1992. Somehow I talked my fiancée (now husband) into seeing it with me; memory and imagination fail as to how exactly I pulled that off. So we're watching the first part of the movie as these British ladies try to figure out how to pull off a month-long vacation trip to Italy (without husbands), and their lives are dreary, and they arrive in Italy and it's dark and rainy and everyone's confused and upset, and my guy and I are both thinking, man, this is so going to be either bleak or angsty, which is so not either of our thing.

Then morning dawns and it's just absolutely lovely. And the rest of the movie is too.



So I'm surprised that it took me so long to read this 1922 book, especially since it's a Gutenberg freebie. But I finally did, and it's as delightful as the movie, though there are a few interesting differences.* What I most appreciated in this book is the additional insights into the characters, and how they grow and are changed by Italy and by their association with each other. When two of the ladies initially show some real selfishness in Italy, one of the other ladies, Rose, wants to fight back and assert herself, and I'm all, yes! Don't let them get away with this! Stand up for your rights! But Lotty tells Rose to let it go.

"What is rather silly," said Mrs. Wilkins with much serenity, "is to mind. I can't see the least point in being in authority at the price of one's liberty."

Lotty was wiser than both of us. Let it be, and let love and beauty and acceptance work their changes in their own time.

Scrap looked up at the pine-tree motionless among stars. Beauty made you love, and love made you beautiful. . .

She pulled her wrap closer round her with a gesture of defence, of keeping out and off. She didn't want to grow sentimental. Difficult not to, here; the marvelous night stole in through all one's chinks, and brought in with it, whether one wanted them or not, enormous feelings—feelings one couldn't manage, great things about death and time and waste; glorious and devastating things, magnificent and bleak, at once rapture and terror and immense, heart-cleaving longing. She felt small and dreadfully alone. She felt uncovered and defenceless. Instinctively she pulled her wrap closer. With this thing of chiffon she tried to protect herself from the eternities.

"I suppose," whispered Lotty, "Rose's husband seems to you just an ordinary, good-natured, middle-aged man."

Scrap brought her gaze down from the stars and looked at Lotty a moment while she focused her mind again.

"Just a rather red, rather round man," whispered Lotty.

Scrap bowed her head.

"He isn't," whispered Lotty. "Rose sees through all that. That's mere trimmings. She sees what we can't see, because she loves him."

Always love.

Though there’s a pervading theme of love, it shares time with that of acceptance and not being judgmental. There’s also a gentle irony in how many times people, even (perhaps especially) married couples, misunderstand each other, but in the magical setting of San Salvatore it somehow always works out for the best.

Buddy reads in April 2015 & April 2020 <— we loved the serendipity here.

*Some of the differences:Lady Caroline's personality, though world-weary in both the book and the film, seemed much more worldly and edgy in the movie. In the book there's no affair between Lady Caroline and another character's husband; there's the potential for one, but it gets nicely snuffed out before anything ever starts. Or maybe I just assumed there was an affair in the movie? (Dang, I need to go watch it again.) Also, Mr. Briggs' terrible nearsightedness is not in the book, but I thought it was a great addition in the movie.  I think Elizabeth von Arnim would have approved.

Free online at Gutenberg here, but be warned that there are several typos in this version.

In the words of Cole Porter, It’s delightful, It’s delicious, It’s de-lovely

The Enchanted April is sweet and soothing and heartwarming, like the holiday we find ourselves on with Lotty, Rose, Caroline and Mrs. Fisher. First off, I loved all the descriptions of the grounds and the gardens. I could see the Judas tree in bloom, the wisteria draping the arbors, and smell the frecias. The idea of a medieval castle in Italy was as charming to me as it was to Lotty Wilkins when she encountered the advertisement telling her it was available for let in April.

Lotty cannot afford a castle on her own steam, but she devises a plan that makes it possible by letting it on share with three strangers. These women are each dissatisfied with the lives they lead, they are lonely, they are stifled and they are unhappy. Over the course of a month, we watch them blossom, just like the flowers. There is nothing spectacular here, no tense dramatic plot line, no scintillating love story, but there is charm and a lesson about what you owe to self over what you owe to others that today’s women, who are busy in a different way, could still learn from.

I fell completely in love with Lotty. She was positive and friendly in the best possible way. I loved the way she bonded with the other characters and pulled them together. I loved her forgiving nature, her political incorrectness, her ability to separate the important from the petty, her honest and free nature, her love for life.

I enjoyed every paragraph of this charmer and it was exactly the breath of fresh air that I needed...my own little holiday in Italy.

Charming!

“All down the stone steps on either side were periwinkles in full flower, and she could now see what it was that had caught at her the night before and brushed, wet and scented across her face. It was wistaria. Wistaria and sunshine.”

This was a lovely book about four English women who answer an advertisement to rent an Italian chateau in San Salvatore,Italy during a dismal April in England. The advertisement seems to be a godsend to these women, whose lives are not going the way they had hoped. As the title word “enchanted” implies, the story does have a slight fairytale-like aura to it, but not annoyingly so.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book so much, on the outset it looked like it would be an extremely slow read. However, it turned out to be very enjoyable. Elizabeth Von Armin is a masterful storyteller. Her writing is beautiful and witty. Also, for a floraphile such as myself, her descriptions of flowers were heavenly:

“The wistaria was tumbling over itself in its excess of life, its prodigality of flowering; and where the pergola ended the sun blazed on scarlet geraniums, bushes of them and nasturtiums in great heaps, and marigolds so brilliant that they seemed to be burning, and red and pink snapdragons all outdoing each other in bright, fierce colour.”

Additionally, as a person whose life has been changed by travel, I think this book is a great advertisement for travelling to renew your soul and learn more about yourself and others.

My first Von Armin and it definitely won’t be my last. Highly recommended.

n  "She stared. Such beauty; and she there to see it. Such beauty; and she alive to feel it."n

I think I ended up loving it even more on this re-read.
---
The joy of re-visiting a lovely book. I initially heard of this title over 25 years ago and then, in 2015, Waterstones picked it for their month’s choice and brought it back to my attention. The serendipity of it :O)

A discreet advertisement in the Times, addressed to “those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine”, is the prelude to a revelatory month for four very different women, who each crave respite from real life. Lulled by the gentle spirit of the Mediterranean, they gradually shed their public skins, discovering a harmony each of them had longed for but none had ever known.

Doesn’t sound like much, but this turned out to be a little gem, that I loved to re-visit. The beauty of it was in its narration and characters. The voices were brilliant, and yes, often very funny. Delightful :0)

n  "What is rather silly," said Mrs. Wilkins with much serenity, "is to mind. I can't see the least point in being in authority at the price of one's liberty."
n

Oh my goodness. What dear, sweet, charming book! I loved it so much! In fact, it is one of my favorite new-to-me reads of the year so far!

Back in the 1920s (when this was written), four women from London travel to an Italian castle, San Salvatore, in search of rest and a chance to get away from their troubles. Instead, they find joy, love, and peace. In seeking to escape their troubles, they each come to realize that they are the source of their worst troubles. When they learn to lay down their inner hindrances and become more their true selves, they each blossom into new and happier people, one after the other.

The castle's name, San Salvatore, means savior in Italian. Lottie repeatedly refers to it as heaven, and I think you could read this whole book as an allegory if you wanted to. By coming to faith in Christ and being near him, we find joy, love, and peace, and shed our worldly troubles as we learn to put off our old selves and become more Christlike. This makes us new and happier people. Whether von Arnim meant this as an allegory or not, I don't know, but she certainly chose the name San Salvatore on purpose -- even if just to signify that their time there saved these four women in various ways from the troubles that bedeviled them before.

This book sat on my TBR shelves for over a year before the #kindredspiritnetwork chose it as the read-along book this month. It was exactly the book I needed to read right now, and I'm so happy I could discuss it with other lovely bookstagrammers! If you're looking for a bright, cheerful, uplifting read this spring, do yourself a favor and pick this up! It reminded me of A Room with a View melded with The Blue Castle in a way.

The Enchanted April is a comedy in the true tradition of Shakespeare. Though written as a novel, it has been easily converted to a play and a film. It is a book about time and place and the effects that those things have on our thoughts and deeds. As the book begins we find ourselves in London on a cold and wet winter day post-World War One. We quickly meet Mrs. Wilkins and Mrs. Arbuthnot who both are members of a “women’s club” that serves as a refuge when they are out and about fulfilling their duties and chores.

Both women chance to see an advertisement in The Times concerning an Italian villa (castle) that could be rented for the month of April. Each finds herself unusually drawn to the possibility, and with Mrs. Wilkins' initiative, they form a friendship and write for further particulars. We are taken through the thoughts of both women leading up to the trip and during the month at San Salvatore.

The author offers us a study of character and mores at a time in England when the Church of England was coping with the stirrings of gender emancipation and women were considering how they might have a life beyond “God, Husband, Home and Duty.”

The other two women are a study in contrasts. The young and beautiful one (Lady Caroline), for whom everything has been easy and there has been no need to consider others. And, the quite old one (Mrs. Fisher), for whom the past and her encounters with the intellectual and the famous dominate any conversation in which she participates. None of the women are friends before agreeing to take together this April retreat to an Italian villa. We get to see them evolve in Italy both through their conversations and their innermost thoughts.

There is both advantage and disadvantage in viewing this from about 100 years distant. It gives one the perspective of where things would be going socially and culturally, but it also tends to temper the immediacy of those issues of gender, class and religion that were so important then. This is much the same reaction that I have to reading G.B. Shaw.

I thoroughly enjoyed my re-immersion in this story. It managed to do its magic on me very much like the villa was able to work its enchantment on these characters.

(This book has been republished many times since its initial date in 1922. I acquired the illustrated Kindle edition. It has the most inviting drawing on the cover and the other illustrations were helpful in showing the regional charm that served as a background to the story.)

What an absolutely delightful novel! I have craved wisteria and sunshine, especially during the capricious Aprils of Western Canada, where we are as likely to get 30 cm of snow as to get sunshine. And there is nothing like new surroundings to help people let go of their poses and to become more of themselves.

It was a treat to get to know Lotty, Rose, Lady Caroline, and Mrs. Fisher, brought together by a newspaper advertisement and getting to know one another in Italy. Lotty becomes the catalyst for change, by changing herself, showing how it can be done and what happiness it brings. She begins the trip desperately desiring to get away from her husband and ends up happy with him again. Even in the early 20th century, before the internet & social media or the 24/7 work expectation, women still felt the need to escape their responsibilities from time to time.

Rose transforms from a grimly religious woman into a loving wife and even Mrs. Fisher realizes that she has been prematurely living in a mausoleum. If only a month away truly had such alchemical properties. Mind you, some of my fondest memories were spent with four women friends at a cabin that one of us owned. We would breakfast, birdwatch, picnic, declare happy hour, and take turns cooking delicious dinners to relax over at day's end, only to get up and repeat the process the next day. As Lotty says, heaven. Actually, that's what my friend used to call her cabin, Heaven.

I wish I could have read this during April, as I had planned but it was still an absolute delight.

Cross posted at my blog:

https://wanda-thenextfifty.blogspot.c...

There's a castle in Italy. Wisteria grows there. Can you picture the private wilderness? The castle is not important. It is a fortress to protect the plants. Don't tread on me. More importantly, can you see yourself there? It's a little place unmolested and unpressed on by who you are in all of those other places you can't quite see yourself in but you're still there all the same. If you wander around in that bit of wild life will you leave tracks in the dirt there too? You know that Camera Obscure song "Let's Get out of this Country" (great song)? "We'll find a cathedral city, you'll convince me I'm pretty." What does it take to convince you?! It's freaking pretty. There's wisteria! (Is that purple? The crayon called wisteria is purple. Color me stupid if I'm wrong.) It's a bit of land. Be pretty. I feel like I should know more songs about this. Kings of Convenience's "Gold in the Air of Summer". Patrick Wolf's "The Gypsy King". "How do I follow? What road to be choosing? Do I follow the star or The Gypsy King?" I know this feeling. I'm thinking the special thing about The Enchanted April is that desire. Let's get out of this country and we will shine like gold in the air of summer. (If you know more songs like this please share. I've felt for some time that it was a kind of song I should have been collecting.)

I know why the advertisement for the castle with the wisteria brought up such longing in Lotty Wilkins and Rose (I forgot how to spell her A name so we get to be on first name basis. I wish I felt better about this presumption). Sometimes I get to feeling too trapped in myself that going somewhere else helps so much. Going to the beach with a book (the mind escape is as vital). The taking of you out of what you can't shake as being a part of you. (Kristen tells me that I should kite surf when I get like that. I wish that I could afford one of these kites. I bet that kite surfing high would last.) I read with hope in my heart that they were going to really spend Lotty's nest egg (a life time of denying herself to save for a rainy day that she had not really intended on having. Oh!). Rose would get out of the guilt of what she believed she should be doing: religious guilt, the needs of others. Recurring problem in others and not a cliche at all. Elizabeth von Arnim is so good! I could feel the weight on their shoulders and it was enough. In November I went to Berlin with my twin sister. Spending all of the savings in one big go because the having that to look forward to is totally something I would do.

Is it so easy, though?

Elizabeth recommended this book to me (thank you, Elizabeth!!) because we were talking about breaking your own heart books. The special thing (I'm getting a bit obsessed with pinpointing to myself what makes something special) about The Enchanted April is that it takes that further. What's the missing part? What is going to become easier to carry if you do something for yourself that is solely for the pleasure of it? Paying attention to the wrong things and reasons until other people become part of that scenery you are the wrong you in. Why does changing something like the background alter the before unhindered path? If you willed yourself into the background I suppose it would...

I wasn't an all new Mariel in Berlin. There was the socially awkward moment typical to me when I bought tickets to the super famous Roman and Greek antiquities museums and then didn't go in because the employee was a bitch to me. I turned tail and ran. Then I fell down outside. And it started to rain! (When it happened I told myself that I'd never tell anyone it did.) The only thing missing was a teary Madonna track like the sob scene in Never Been Kissed (that only made me bawl like no movie has ever made me bawl in my life because I was pmsing!). Other times I had such fun doing things that I could really do at home, or any where else. It didn't take much. It's like the wisteria. I loved so much imagining the past when in historical sites. I liked that the people didn't seem to want to force themselves to exude happiness. I liked that no one knew me. It was an illusion of freedom that's really always there (and not an illusion), if the part of you that allows that is there. All new. Did Lady Caroline aka Scrap (ha! I loved it when von Arnim switches to identifying her as Scrap midway. Revenge!) really get pinned by what she thought were other's needs on her person? Lotty could talk as she could only in her head before because she wasn't nervous. Maybe it has to do with echoes of your own mistakes haunting you. If you leave the haunted house? I think there's a lot to be said for that bit of land.

The special thing about The Enchanted April is the desire to have that gold in the air of summer glow. Ah, but what about the after glow? I felt the potential. What about the April? I didn't feel like I got one enough. I don't know if this is a criticism or not. It's something that occurred to me and then stayed there in the back of my mind. Maybe I need a new setting to figure out what it is. The air between them -- Don't forget Mrs. Fisher, Mariel! Yes, they are accompanied by an old lady who has no one any longer. She holds onto her money because she WILL be taking it with her when she dies. She influenced me a bit towards Lotty, I must admit. Or I just agreed with her. Lotty lost me with all of her certainty once she is in the castle. She "sees" and knows and it is without question. What was the missing part of her and where was it found in Italy? It's true that a new morning can make what seemed hopeless the night before better. Was it something to be admired or does it just preclude me from knowing her beyond this? Will that good mood continue? I know that I wouldn't have been friends with Rose either. I think it is because they don't question a lot (and the goody two shoesness of it all). It was interesting that the air von Armin puts between them often reads like action that has taken place off stage. It wasn't important what happened as much as that it did. I'm not sure how I feel about that but it was an interesting dynamic, like a place out of time. Done deal. They were all in their own ruts for whatever reason (mostly the burden of expectation, perceived or otherwise) and took for granted. In a new place! I don't like to take for granted. (That's what is great about new places. You aren't used to them and you don't take for granted what you are not used to.)

Mrs. Fisher and Rose's battle to be the mistress of the castle was too funny. Rose follows up every request for tea or food something with the same. "Will you have some tea?" "Will you?" Neither of them understand why the other is doing what they are doing.

This is all my confused and roundabout way of saying that I felt the desire more than the change. Expectations persisted. Dammit, it was probably because I was not there. I could only see the advertisement for the wisteria... Why didn't they long for more when they got there. If you get the dream and then there are no more dreams then it is worse. I miss having the something to look forward to.

"How passionately she longed to be important to somebody again- not important on platforms, not important as an asset in an organization, but privately important, just to one other person, quite privately, nobody else to know or notice. It didn't seem much to ask in a world so crowded with people, just to have one of them, only one out of all the millions, to oneself. Somebody who needed one, who thought of one, who was eager to come to one- oh, oh how dreadfully one wanted to be precious!"

I want to see preciousness. If Scrap lived in mortal fear (it's all so life and death) of being grabbed at (it was all so tyrannical to her) then I live in ruin another perfectly good location fear of grabbing. I don't want to take it for granted that I "see" it all played out as Lotty does. Off stage? Not as good. Guess you can't get out of the country forever. Guess it is a good idea to find what the hell the missing thing is. The physics (I blame science) reason for breaking ones own heart in the first place is probably connected to that. And it feels less off stage if they notice as I'm noticing why they are doing those things. (I suspect it gets to that unimpeded train of expectations when what you're noticing is only what you are noticing. Not that I'm wise or nothing.)

P.s. I really liked this book! (But they aren't invited to my villa. I wanna be pretty and you be handsome with someone who will sit under the trees and not worry about what god thinks about it. At least I don't agonize over what is proper or not! It could be so much worse.)