Angela's Ashes

Bindi tagged me, the rules being to quote the first five sentences of page 123 of the book I'm reading. I'm not a great reader these days so it's lucky I have something to quote:

At night three of us sit under the light pole at the top of the street reading, Mikey, Malachy and I. The Molloys are like us with their father drinking the dole money or the wages, leaving no money for candles or parrafin oil for the lamp. Mikey reads books and the rest of us read comic books. His father , Peter, brings books from the Carnegie Library so that he'll have something to do when he's not drinking pints or when he's looking after the family anytime Mrs Molloy is in the lunatic asylum......

Angela's Ashes was a Pulitzer prize winner over 10 years ago, so I expect it's probably familiar territory to many. If you haven't read it you should.

Tonight I don't want to think too hard so I'm going to tell you just one thing I liked about the book.
I came across a euphemism I've never heard before: "the excitement". It's clever because it can be used a couple of ways: his excitement refers to a piece of anatomy, the excitement is an act.

It's a wonderful bit of English. Bonking, screwing, shagging or (worst of all) rooting are quite descriptive of a senseless, cold, possibly one-night-stand style of activity. Making love is a perfect description of, um, making love but when overused it belittles the whole concept. "Doing the excitement" is a great way to talk about a type of sex that's affectionate, respectful but not neccessarily an expression of love.

I haven't talked about the quote at all, I know. I will. It's harrowing stuff to think about though so another day, eh?

love to all
kyles