I hosted my neighborhood book club for the first time this month after joining last year. The host chooses 3 to 4 options and then the group votes. I was thrilled when The Correspondent by Virginia Evans was picked. It has been at the very top of my to-be-read list for months.
Our group almost unanimously voted it 5 stars, which I have not seen since I joined. It is truly a wonderful read. It took me a little time to adjust to the format since it is written entirely as letters. It is not a suspenseful page turner, but rather a quiet unfolding. I fell in love with the characters. My heart ached at times and I laughed out loud at others.
In this season of life, I especially appreciated a main character in the stage ahead of me. It gave me perspective on what matters in the years to come. A gentle reminder to be open, to be honest and to communicate with the people you love. To live without regret.
“Imagine, the letters one has sent out into the world, the letters received back in turn, are like the pieces of a magnificent puzzle. . . . Isn’t there something wonderful in that, to think that a story of one’s life is preserved in some way, that this very letter may one day mean something, even if it is a very small thing, to someone?”
Filled with knowledge that only comes from a life fully lived, The Correspondent is a gem of a novel about the power of finding solace in literature and connection with people we might never meet in person. It is about the hubris of youth and the wisdom of old age, and the mistakes and acts of kindness that occur during a lifetime.
Sybil Van Antwerp has throughout her life used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings, around half past ten, Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has—a mother, grandmother, wife, divorcee, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a very full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes that the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.
Sybil Van Antwerp’s life of letters might be “a very small thing,” but she also might be one of the most memorable characters you will ever read.
Since Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, I made a festive little charcuterie board. I had originally thought about a fully themed menu and decor, but time got away from me, as it so often does. I have become quite adept at cranking out a charcuterie board, and honestly, it never disappoints.
There was one sentence I loved so much that I took a picture of it, without giving away who said it:
“As I age it feels so strange that the majority of people with whom I come in contact don’t have the slightest inkling that he ever lived. I had him for so much less time than I’ve lived without him, and yet his presence is enormous.”
That line stopped me. It applies to so many of us. For me, it is Matthew. For others it may be a parent, sibling or grandparent. We all likely carry someone enormous in our hearts, someone most of the people in our daily lives do not even know existed.
And the black bows. Mother ironed a stack for me last weekend in preparation for my upcoming 50th birthday. When we could not figure out where to store them without wrinkling them again, we simply hung them up. :-)
What is on your bedside?
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