NYRB Classics published their edition of A Month in the Country in October of 2000, and it is the book we’ll be talking about in Episode 11 of The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast.
I’m going to get nostalgic for a moment. It’s only been about five years, but I remember feeling cold back in February 2009. I don’t like February that much because it’s cold and dark. Winter is not “loitering around the corner,” as it is in this book; it’s come home to roost. I remember simply reading the title of a book, A Month in the Country. The cover suggested warmth and reprieve, and I wanted that, even if it be just an idyll. As it turned out, the book was perfect, so perfect I look back on the day in February when I read it as a moment of renewal in and of itself. This melancholy books, that touches on happiness, is one of my favorite books.
In Episode 12 we will be talking about Theodor Fontane’s Irretrievable. Please send us your thoughts and we’ll share them on the show.
