LOOSE ENDS

A while back, my sister Marjory gave me some yarn that she said came from the home of her daughter-in-law's (Kat's) mum who had passed away.  I usually knit with fingering weight so I was at a bit of a loss over what to do with this heavy, fuzzy yarn.  In the end I decided to make something for Kat.

The pattern is 'Campside' by Alicia Plummer.  I used larger needles than the pattern called for because of the weight of the yarn and came out with a rather large, cozy shawl - perfect for throwing over the shoulders when there's a nip in the air.

Luckily, that shouldn't be for a while yet.  The shawl is all boxed up and ready to send to Kat --- but it will linger here a bit longer while the striking Canada Post workers resolve their issues.  On the whole, this is not a strike that will have any real inconvenience attached to it for me.  In fact, this time I will learn to pay my bills on line and, aside from sending the odd parcel, Canada Post will have gone the way of the dinosaur for me.

I recently re-read a book that I remember thinking was really, really great.  Unfortunately, it did not pass the test of time for me.

The Hope is a work of historical fiction that covers the history of Israel from the War of Independence of 1948 through the Six-Day War of 1967.  I would like to say I loved this book but, unfortunately, I can't.  It is obvious that Wouk has extensively researched the battles, the history and the politics of that region at that time.  The sections of the book that dealt with this are exciting and enormously interesting.  He should have stopped there.

However, historical fiction needs a cast of characters to bring the work to life and here Wouk falls short.  The four (4) fictional men are reasonably well written - especially when it comes to their roles as soldiers.  I can't say the same for the women characters.  There is plenty of attention paid to how they fill out their uniforms but not much on how they contributed to history.  All four 'relationships' felt forced and on the whole, unbelievable - disappointing from the man who brought us Marjorie Morningstar, War and Remembrance and The Winds of War.  On the whole, the fictional characters and their parts in the story are rather uninteresting and don't really add much to the overall story. I tended to find them distracting rather than adding to the historical account.

In my opinion, you would do better to read James Michener's 'The Source' or Leon Uris' 'Exodus' for historical fiction on this topic.  For a non-fiction account, try  'Israel: A History' by Martin Gilbert.