Dear Reader,
I thought I’ write to tell you about this rather wonderful and unique book ‘Words in Deep Blue’ by Cath Crowley via a letter as letters are at the heart of this story about words – how we use them, what they mean to us and how they can shape our lives.
Words have the power to comfort us, to hurt us, to make us laugh or cry; they can swoop us back to a fond memory long forgotten or spur us onto the future; they can connect us to each other and can have the power to fill a void in us that has been there – a feeling, experience or thought that we can’t quite put into communication but by stumbling over a perfect string of words they can spell out exactly what we’ve been searching for to put whatever it is we’re going through into words. It can give us great comfort to know that someone, somewhere in time and space has experienced exactly what we have and in a way it creates it an intimate connection between you and the author and book. I mean how amazing is it that someone you may never meet or who is no longer with us can speak right to the very core of you – to help you make sense of things and to help you along through all the ups and downs of life. And the author and book may never know the helping hand that they’ve leant, yet it could have made the world of difference to the reader. And how great and sometimes surreal a feeling it is when you read something which you thought only you had thought of but it’s there – in black inky font on paper – part of a story, from someone else’s mind, thoughts and imaginations – the exact outlook or pondering or wonderment that you felt and you see living proof that there is someone else out there in kindred spirit to yourself. They can bring a strange and wonderful connection these funny shaped things on paper! Words seem to me to be something very much like magic, and this book is filled with celebration of them!
I realised that I haven’t actually given any detail of the story itself yet and instead have just waffled on aimlessly about my love of this book and storytelling so let me give you an idea of the characters lives that we meet in ‘Words in Deep Blue’. I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll keep it brief.
We have Rachel and Henry – huckleberry friends from childhood who meet after being apart for years; a quirky, independent bookshop (which you’re going to wish were real to visit!) alongside a brilliant array of a fairly small but diverse set of characters; the universal connection of dealing with grief in its different forms (I promise it’s not a downer of a book, the author deals with it sensitively and doesn’t drag the topic out and writes about it beautifully); a whole lot of love for books and book quotes; the complex and powerful idea of memory; a good dash of music and the celebrating of this confusing but wonderful thing called living.
I know my clumsy ramblings of this book doesn’t do ‘Words in Deep Blue’ or Cath Crowley justice but I hope that if you decide to pick this book up or if it finds its way to you, that it gives you the entertainment, comfort, company and the escapism it gave me.
Happy reading fellow bookworms :)
jaynie.hufflepuff
