Melody Murray's Books

First re-read of this in probably a decade. I remembered loving it, and I remembered lots besides, but I did not remember it being howlingly funny. Which it is.Coming to this straight from a re-read of Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books, I find myself unsurprised that I grew up with a deep and abiding love for the written word. As a kid, I was reading some fine, fine writers all unaware. A pause, then, for a moment of gratitude to Mrs. Borski the iron-grey librarian who steered my little canoe so wisely and well...So, Gone-Away Lake. Not a lake any more, but a swampy, boggy ruin inhabited by two of the most delightful old persons ever. The story is set in the late fifties, but so many flashbacks and time capsules that it transcends dating and becomes something more. Everyone should read this. If you've already read it, you should read it again. Some of the lines that made me laugh aloud:"Julian always said that Foster's two main interests were Outer Space and inner pie.""First thing we'd do when we got to [the rock:] was climb up on it and eat whatever we'd swiped from the pantry or wheedled out of the cook. In those days we ate steadily, like cattle, and everything agreed with us.""Rain affects small boys like strong coffee, or adrenalin, or snuff. Never saw it fail. Turns them into howling wildernesses.""He was a tall boy with curly brown hair; he was going to be very handsome, but he didn't know it yet. Neither did anybody else."