Leaving Everything Most Loved - a review, and related meditation

One of the reasons I've been negligent about blogging is that I'm finding being retired to be less than a mixed blessing. In fact, I can't really call it a blessing at all. I was very, very focused for many, many years on my career. Its end was earlier than I would have chosen, as I've written here before, and the time since has not been easy, in many ways.

This afternoon, at Barnes & Noble, I helped a woman choose between two sets of flash-cards for her autistic nephew who loves historical facts. It’s the first time I’ve felt truly useful in … awhile. (Yes, it was a bit disconcerting to hear “can someone help me?” being called over the railing into the cafe, but once I saw she wasn’t in need of CPR or a tourniquet, it turned into an opportunity. I hope we chose well.)

Anyway, the one thing I can be counted on to do is read and comment. That the title of my latest read is related to how I feel about the above is pure coincidence. 


Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Can one's life be too settled? Maisie Dobbs rejects the comfortable path as she works on two cases. One case, the murder of two Indian women, brings her to think of the role that country served in the lives of her two mentors, Khan and Maurice, and to wonder if she, too, needs to experience a journey out before she can make a choice.  Another case brings her back to neighborhoods she would have known as a child, a sharp contrast to her present circumstances. Other people in Maisie's life face choices and dilemmas, and another World War seems inevitable.

This is a slightly darker Maisie, and it left me even more eager to see what choices she makes next. As always, the writing is evocative and clean, and the characters as real as they come.

Highly recommended!


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