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I Can't Stay Long
I Can't Stay Long | Laurie Lee
1 post | 1 read | 3 to read
The essential Laurie Lee, a collection of occasional writings full of his unique vision and irresistible charm All of the wit and wisdom and poetry that made Laurie Lee one of the most celebrated English writers of the twentieth century can be found in this compilation of first loves and obsessions. In Part One, Lee revisits his idyllic boyhood in the Cotswolds village made famous by his bestselling autobiography, Cider with Rosie. In Part Two, he turns his attention to an earnest consideration of abstract concepts such as the power of charm, the pleasures of appetite, and the meaning of paradise. And in the final and longest section, the author of the acclaimed Spanish travelogues As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning and A Rose for Winter tells the stories of his many other journeysfrom sun-dappled Tuscany to melancholy Warsaw to the enchanting and exotic Sugar Islands of the Caribbean.
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I Can't Stay Long | Laurie Lee
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Divided into 3 sections, Part 1 is a return to Slad, the setting of Cider With Rosie. The pieces in this section are generally 4 and 5 star worthy, particularly A Drink with a Witch and First Love.

Part 2 has four pieces about abstracts: Love; Appetite; Charm and Paradise. Then, The Firstborn is Lee's hymn to his wife and their first child together (though not Lee's first child, as he already had a daughter with a previous partner). 👇🏻👇🏻

Bookwomble The best piece by far is The Village that Lost its Children, an account of Lee's visit to the Welsh village, Aberfan, a year after the disaster that killed 144 people, 116 of them children. This is the stand-out piece in the whole book. Lee captures the quiet despair of those struggling to come to terms with a wholly-preventable loss of life; the tensions between the bereaved and those who escaped the disaster, but not its consequences... 👇🏻👇🏻 6y
Bookwomble ... and the problems caused by the huge sum of money donated to the village by well-wishers from all over the world. Part 3 is a series of travel sketches, from Beirut to Ireland to Mexico, and points in between, including an early flight on Concorde as part of a press contingent, an experience he found distinctly underwhelming!. This is the most uneven section of the book, but there are some good pieces amongst the unexpectedly dull ones. 6y
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