Two of my cousins, who are effectively "professional" baseball fans, introduced our family to the baseball marathon which has taken different forms. In 2001 after Paul graduated from college, he and I went to California where we say seven games in seven days in five different cities. The next year we expanded the participants as Carol and Sarah joined us for a five games in five days in four different cities - Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati and Detroit. Next was the Shakesepare marathon, shortly after my retirement, Carol and I went off to Stratford-upon-Avon to see eight playes in five days including three plays in one day - 9 plus hours of Shakesepare in one day!
Whatever the form, these marathons make demands that are both physical and mental. I have been thinking about this as I finished my latest venture in Angela Thirkell's imaginary English county of Barsetshire - the story entitled Never to Late. I am now close to the end of what can only be described as a marathon of reading, I forget the exact number, but there are close to 30 of these novels describing English country life before, during and after World War II. In the next book (which I have also finished and will post about soon) some characters look back at their first meeting which tookplace early in the series and is described as 20 years ago.
That didn't seem right, it feels like the period covered has to be much longer than that, after all, I can't think of any author who wrote close to 30 books about one set of characters, albeit a large number of characters. And there is nothing unusual about a book that covers 20-30 years of people's lives. But then I realized what is unique about Thirkell's writing is that it isn't one or two books covering 20 years, it's about 30 books covering that same period allowing for much more in depth story telling. So in this case the marathon is not as much about length as it is about depth.
Approaching the end has also made me wonder about what was on Thirkell's mind as she wrote these last four to five books (she basically produced about a book a year). At the time of this book, she had to be in her mid 60's and must have known she couldn't have had that many more books in her. That may account for what seems to be an emphasis in these novels on growing old and death itself. In the next book she refers to "the prison of old age" and on characters beginning that journey "from which no traveler returns" - one of her many references to Shakespeare. At the same time there is also some recognition not only that life goes on, but that this little imaginary world goes on with each generation taking its place and carrying out its responsibilities to the best of its ability. The one aged character who dies in the book is memoralized with a tablet that says "He lived among his people" - high praise indeed.
Of course no Thirkell book would be complete about romance and this book is no exception on two different levels. There is the youngest Graham daugher, Edith who has no less than three possible suitors in what appears to be the longest courtship in all of the novels. The other level, however, is represented in title of the book concering the possibilities of late blooming romances for Laura Morland and Miss Merriman (Merry for short). All of this is either resolved or not resolved, but always in a way that keeps the story going forward into the next book which is where I must go as well. So like the last few miles, the last game or the last play, whatever the challenges, the endurance is all - with apologies to Shakespeare and Thirkell as well.
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