Comfort Reading
Sometimes I need to go back to old favorites. With food it’s a pot roast and potatoes, chocolate chip cookies, or good old homemade baked macaroni and cheese (NOT Kraft). With movies it’s Enchanted April, or Raiders of the Lost Ark, or The Sound of Music. And speaking of music — Martin Sexton, Enya, or Jeremiah’s Lamentations, by Zalenka.
Life has held a lot of uncertainty these days. With my father’s illness, a requested leave of absence from writing mysteries, and some other life occurrences, I’ve needed some items of comfort – things that make me feel good, no matter what. I have new writing projects that I love, and that are exciting and fun, but when life’s pressures weigh heavy, it gets pretty difficult to be creative. So I’ve found myself doing little chores, like vacuuming, or baking bread, or folding laundry. But most of all, I’ve been reading.
And what have I been reading? My comfort books.
I have several old stand-bys. The Chronicles of Narnia, Dorothy L. Sayers, and whatever Harlan Coben happens to write. But this time it’s Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax series that is seeing me through.
I have all of her books. They’re bent and worn, with broken spines and covers coming unbound. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read them. But going back to them is like being reacquainted with old friends. I know exactly how the stories are going to turn out, which of Mrs. Pollifax’s friends I’m going to come across, and just how the twist is going to play out. But you know what? That’s part – or most – of the fun.
The first one, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, is my favorite. A woman in her sixties, who no longer has any motivation to go on, walks into the CIA and applies for work as a spy. Through a chance encounter she is hired and goes on a mission – and thus begins her career in espionage.
These aren’t hard, dark spy novels, like LeCarre, or Tom Clancy. There is violence and evil, of course, but surrounding them always is this wonderful woman who works on intuition and love, and who never turns away a friend – or stranger – in need.
I love these books. I love how they make me feel when I read them. I love what they say about our world, and humankind, and how we treat each other.
Dorothy Gilman has given me a great gift. She has given me the ultimate comfort food. How wonderful what the written word can do.
