Looking for a book
Not just any book. A specific one.
See, about fifteen years ago I read a novel. I can’t remember the title or the author and I haven’t got an entirely clear memory of the plot. But I do recall thinking it was very good, and I’d like to track it down again. Any chance, dear reader, that you know which book I’m talking about? Here’s what I do remember.
It is set, partly, in North London (in and around Finsbury Park) where the protagonist spends some of the novel living in one of those hotels that face onto the park. The main character is a man who is the victim of an (apparently) random assault in a supermarket carpark. He is shot in the head by his assailant but miraculously survives only to discover that he has been blinded by the attack. For much of the novel he is troubled by an image he cannot resolve, that of something shiny and red rolling through darkness. It is only later that he realises it was just a tomato, tumbling out of the grocery bag he dropped when shot… the last image he saw, burnt into his memory, before he is blinded. The cover of the edition I read was a blurred image of this.
The plot becomes strange, however, as the protagonist becomes convinced that he is seeing things, despite his blindness and this is further complicated by the fact that he may not actually be completely blind at all.
Any ideas anyone?
Last year my daughter took out a library book from her school and we enjoyed it so much that to this day we kid around with the quote we got from this book. I can’t remember the title and I can’t remember the author. It’s about a mom doing her chores around the house and her little boy approaches her stating he has “nothing to do.” She replies, “Nothing to do! I can think of a million things to do!” And the little boy helps her with her chores and at the same time plays with her. The story continues along repeating the same things…nothing to do….I can think of a thousand things to do…. and so on until in the end, she has nothing to do.
Has anyone ever heard of this story?
October 25th, 2007 | 2:28pm
by Angela
I’m afraid not, Angela. But it does call to mind a classic Calvin and Hobbes cartoon. Calvin’s mother is doing some housework and looking harried. Calvin arrives and informs her that he has “nothing to do”. She suggests that he could always tidy his room… to which Calvin responds, “I wasn’t complaining, I was boasting!” and wanders off.
October 28th, 2007 | 11:06pm
by Jim Bliss