Six months now since she’d been sent away to London. Every morning before she opened her eyes she thought, If I were the wishing type, I know what I would wish. And then she opened her eyes and saw Chanu’s puffy face on the pillow next to her, his lips parted indignantly even as he slept.
Nazneen, the main character of Monica Ali’s novel Brick Lane, is struggling to come to terms with her fate. She is a Bangladeshi young woman whose parents have arranged her marriage to a man twice her age and a Bengali immigrant living in England.
The other book I’m reading is a first in a mystery series, Eight of Swords by David Skibbins. Throw in a protagonist who is a radical, a manic-depressive and a tarot card reader and you’ve got a fascinating sleuth. Go to the author’s web site and get a tarot card reading. You know you want to.
I’m several chapters into each book and both are proving to be very enjoyable reads.
Tonight’s poetry lines they come from America’s first published poet. Do you know who that is? Take a guess. I dedicate this one to my husband.
If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.
To My Dear and Loving Husband by Anne Bradstreet. Born in 1612, Bradstreet was one of the first poets to write English verse in the American colonies. For a recent biography of Anne Bradstreet check out this link.
