Friday, May 22, 2009

The Earth Hums in B Flat

The author of The Earth Hums in B Flat is 62 years old, this is her first novel. I love that! Gwenni can fly -- she flies over her village, and hears the Earth's music,but also discovers secrets. Will the secrets hurt or help her and her family. I love Gwenni's voice, and how her "oddness" that her mom finds so disturbing is considered quaint by her neighbors. Gwenni wants to be a detective, but the police officer tells her:
"Detecting isn't a suitable job for a woman, Gwenni" he says. But he won't' tell me why it isn't. Maybe he doesn't know.
That made me laugh. So many things aren't suitable in life, but who's to say why they're not. We always act as though suitable is so desirable, don't we!?

Gwenni flies at night, but is always striving to fly while she's wide awake. I had a dream once that I was flying. It was so real that I'm not convinced that it wasn't real! It was though I had no burdens, nothing to weigh me down--such a sense of contentment and well being. I am always wishing I can repeat that dream.

Gwenni's flying doesn't always bring her a sense of well being, sometimes it scares her, but still, she doesn't want to lose it. She says:

"Up here, far away from everybody, the night is peaceful; there's no sound except the hum of the Earth. . . Mr. Hughes Music said it was B flat . . . But he doesn't know how the Earth's deep, never-ending note clothes me in rainbow colours, fills my head with all the books ever written, and feeds me with the smell of Mrs. Sargent's famous vanilla biscuits . . ."

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