Day 22

Alys Always, by Harriet Lane

What a clever book!




I came to this book knowing nothing about it, so I did not know what to expect. I did not even know what genre it was.



The story is narrated by Frances, although she does not introduce herself and we only find out her first name several pages into the book. She is in the car, driving, in the dark, when she realises that something is not right. She discerns a shape off the road and stops, bravely, to investigate. (SF? Gothic horror? Thriller? Perhaps, read on.) She finds the scene of an accident, trapped and invisible in the car is Alice. Frances phones for help and talks to Alice, slowly realising that she is much more seriously hurt than she had at first thought. Help comes. Frances returns to her car and drives home.

Some days later, the police contact Frances and tell her that Alice died at the scene and that her family would like to hear about her last few minutes. It emerges that Alice was in fact Alys, wife of famous author Laurence Kyte. Frances, a journalist on the book page of a left wing paper, The Questioner, agrees to meet them. The rest of the book is Frances' account of her increasing involvement with the Kyte family. (Ah! contemporary relationship novel with possible leanings towards literary fiction? Possibly, read on.)

What is revealed in this book is not the narrative of Frances' relationship with the Kytes, but Frances herself.  At Alys's memorial service I began to wonder about Frances' integrity. Is she telling us everything? What is she hiding? For a few pages I thought I knew the answer, but I didn't. This is a much better book than 'the hidden twist' plot. So, I read on, more and more enthralled until, suddenly, it was finished. Does it end well? That takes a lot of thinking about. I couldn't possibly comment.

Frances will stay with me for a long time. What do I think about her? Should one judge her at all or accept that she just acts the way most people do, only most people are less aware or less honest?

This a brilliant book, beautifully written, utterly readable. It is one of the best books I have read in a long time. Five stars with oak leaves clusters!!

 

Music

La Valse, Ravel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDk2RUaoEJQ

I love this. A waltz – so romantic and yet this has such a subtly sinister twist to it.

 

Food

A Middle Eastern Stew - the basics

This is a recipe for a basic Middle Eastern Stew. It is the bare bones of a recipe which you can play with to suit your own particular fancy.

The Meat

Beef or lamb (cheap cuts are good for this) chopped into cubes. Allow 4oz (120g) per person.

You could use poultry, but if you do, make sure you don’t overcook it. Add it to the other ingredients 30 - 40 minutes before the end of the cooking time, depending on how slow your cooking method is. Rule of thumb: 40 minutes for the slow cooker, 30 minutes for the oven. If it is overcooked, it goes stringy and dry.

The Vegetables

1 onion chopped or sliced

2 cloves of garlic chopped

·      Carrots

·      Mushrooms

·      chopped aubergines

·      peppers

·      cauliflower – as with chicken add towards the end of the cooking or it will go mushy

·      beans

·      lentils

·      chick peas – if you are using dried chick peas, they need to be soaked for 8 hours in cold water and cooked for an hour in boiling water

·      1 tin of tomatoes

·      dried apricots

·      prunes

·      raisins (as you wish)

The Spices

1 tbsp spoon, in total, any of these spices, alone or in combination

·      Ras al Hanout

·      Cumin

·      Cinnamon

·      Coriander

·      Paprika

·      all spice

·      ginger

·      Za’atar

·      black pepper

The Liquid

Enough to cover the meat and vegetables with 2cms to spare

·      Water

·      Stock

·      Tinned consommé

·      Tinned oxtail soup

·      Cock o’leekie (believe it or not, this works very well)

The Herbs

Add at the end, alone or in combination

·      Chopped parsley

·      Chopped coriander

·      Chopped mint

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.    Place all the ingredients (unless otherwise stipulated) in a casserole or slow cooker

2.    Bring to boil

3.    Cook in a low oven or on the slow cooker’s lowest setting for 3 – 5 hours

4.    Taste and add salt and pepper to taste (If it is too spicy add water or yoghourt until it tastes OK. Sugar or honey will also remove some of the heat of the spices, but you have to use it sparingly or it will be too sweet.)

Serve with yoghourt and flat bread.


Today’s Picture

Toulouse-Lautrec:  Ball at the Moulin de la Galette, 1889.


All Montmartre’s nightlife is here. The wild dancing, the bar, le flic sorting out a bit of bother and the lonely people.

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