84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Short and sweet. Didn’t affect me so deeply – maybe because I read it in the space of a couple hours – but it did transport me to a time and place before my own. A quick Google search tells me that 84 Charing Cross Road is now a McDonald’s. Fitting for a book that lingers in nostalgia and longs for what was lost.
Throughout the letters, people come and people go. Sometimes there are 6 letters in the space of a few weeks, other times years pass by with no correspondence. People lose and regain contact. I could relate to the guilt of losing touch with somebody that you realise only in hindsight how much you appreciate. But no matter the distance – whether spatial or temporal – love is there.
Maybe that’s where love lives: in the spaces between us. The silences, the words left unsaid. Until we speak it into this domain, this messy and confused realm of hearts and souls.
Wow. Maybe it did affect me deeply after all. Cool book. I’ll check out the movie.