Father Politics and The Pilot's Wife
Nov. 24th, 2023 01:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLast night, we went to see a modern dance piece at the Coronet Theatre in Notting Hill, which is a fascinating building, filled with amazing artifacts, art and interesting decor. The show itself was an eight-hander, with a speech at the start about lack of diversity in government, systemic racism and misogyny, and general inequalities in society. That set the stage for the dancing, which presented powerful themes of disenfranchisement, oppression, and different forms of prejudice. There was a lot of impressive movement going on, with great diversity in the cast (both in terms of ethnicity, style and body type). Quite a bit of it made me feel uncomfortable, but that was definitely the point - and I was particularly amazed by the ability of the female dancers to do a whole number in three-inch stilettos...
On the way home, I finished reading The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve, whose writing I think is extremely good. This book is about Kathryn, the pilot's wife of the title, who is told at the start that her husband's plane has exploded in mid-air, just off the coast of Ireland. The rest of the book is about her and the rest of her family dealing with the news, the fallout and the discoveries that are subsequently made about her husband. I was annoyed that the main plot point mentioned on the back didn't happen until over two thirds of the way through and I wasn't entirely sure about the main aspects of the climax (things got a bit melodramatic and lots of revelations came totally out of nowhere). But the last ten pages or so were fantastic and I was very happy with where it all eventually ended up.
On the way home, I finished reading The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve, whose writing I think is extremely good. This book is about Kathryn, the pilot's wife of the title, who is told at the start that her husband's plane has exploded in mid-air, just off the coast of Ireland. The rest of the book is about her and the rest of her family dealing with the news, the fallout and the discoveries that are subsequently made about her husband. I was annoyed that the main plot point mentioned on the back didn't happen until over two thirds of the way through and I wasn't entirely sure about the main aspects of the climax (things got a bit melodramatic and lots of revelations came totally out of nowhere). But the last ten pages or so were fantastic and I was very happy with where it all eventually ended up.
