Saturday, January 14, 2006

The Passion (from long before Mel Gibson coopted the phrase)

Eighteen years ago I heard a book review that caught my attention. By the time the dust of that period of my life had settled I was divorced and remarried. The book was The Passion by Jeanettte Winterson. While I have not picked this book up in ten years, as I lay in bed last night, I still remember that we read from page 62 at my wedding. Part of it reads:

If I find her how will my future be?
I will find her.
Somewhere between fear and sex passion is.
Passion is not so much an emotion as a destiny. What choice have I in the face of this wind but to put up sail and rest my oars.
Dawn breaks.
Jeanette Winterson - The Passion (1987)

Also the books cover sheet:
You have navigted with raging soul far from the paternal home, passing beyond the seas' double rocks and now you inhabit a foreign land
Medea

(Thanks to P/O whose blog keeps reminding me of the joys of literature, something easy for me to forget lately)



2 comments:

P/O said...

hey, thanks for the shout-out! i've definitely been in one of those voracious "i'll read whatever is put in front of me" phases lately...

Nate said...

thanks for the motivation.