galfreda@abctales.com

Hi pip. Have just added a v short review of 'Peace is Every Step'. Cheers, galfreda

This book is like an oasis, even while it celebrates the mundane. Each short section is written in such deceptively simple language, while it refers to such profound things. There really is a section on washing dishes (p26) which I can never fully connect with, but the bits on anger and on dissolving the boundaries between things/people are very uplifting, almost utopian visions. Though Hanh sees hope as an obstacle to living in the moment, this book is a hopeful one.

I finished this book at 1.30am last night. I found it beautiful - the language, the rhythms, the weaving in and out of houses and lives - it's like the most sensitive documentary, despite being poetic fiction, and despite its metaphysical ending.

I wasn't so sure about the ending last night, but now feel it adds to the magic of the book as a whole, and I've decided to 'receive' it as a sort of gift!

So much sadness, so much richness. I had a lump in my throat all the way through - not in a 'cheesy' way - in an awestruck way. I was awestruck by the writing, by the humanity.

Inexcusably badly edited BUT I found myself enmeshed in the brilliantly communicated atmosphere of dysfunctional relationships and the captivating literary gossip. This is also the subtlest but most scathing 'dissing' of Ted Hughes I've read so far. Overall this is a tragedy which sometimes seems like a warning about the results of ineffectual parenting and 'poetic' narcissism.