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Showing posts from September, 2012

Senses explode!

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Reading this novel A Lady Cyclist's Guide to Kashgar: A Novel  by Suzanne Joinson is a kaleidoscope of colors, scents and times. I love the interplay of characters and times. The descriptive power is such that you are there in the dust and in the fountained gardens. Meeting the smells and sights through the author's word usage is a delight, a whirling evocative happening that evolves into a sustaining and satisfactory experience. It's 1923 and two missionary women, sisters, travel to the city of Kashgar along the Silk Road, both for very different reasons. One has adventure in mind, the other missionary zeal. Their story is juxtaposed against the modern day meeting of and Frieda and Tayeb, a refugee from Yemeni, whom Frieda first comes across asleep in her London apartment doorway.  The characters' stories are linked by Frieda inheriting the contents of an apartment belonging to an unknown woman. Times and situations merge into each other under the microscope of this