"whale music" by paul quarrington

strangely enough, this classic of canadian lit is out of print and my library did not have it. i had to get it on an inter-library loan all the way from medicine hat.

"whale music" is the story of desmond howl. once a hugely successful musician, des now wears little more than a bathrobe and spends his time in a california mansion reminiscing about the glory days while composing the titular opus.

this is classic paul quarrington. funny, seamless transitions from present to past, fully realized wonderfully human characters... mr.quarrington may be my new literary boyfriend.

"pride and prejudice" by jane austen

this classic of english literature concerns itself with the bennet family. the matriarch, mrs. bennet spends the whole novel attempting to get her five daughters (from eldest to youngest), jane, elizabeth, mary, kitty and lydia, hitched. the two eldest are the primary concern and most of the storyline centers on them and the two gentlemen whom they are interested in, mr.bingley and mr.darcy respectively.

in standard 19th century lit form, nothing very exciting happens. there's a lot of gossip and parties and dinners and long walks but no car chases, sex, duels or deaths. things were simpler and more dramatic in those days. also, it's perfectly acceptable to marry your cousin.

this book is widely considered to be the prototype for the romantic comedy. while there definitely were moments where i smiled, i couldn't always tell whether certain situations and characters were meant to be funny or if i was just interpreting them that way.

this book successfully fulfilled my quota for a classic for this year.