From time to time I need to read a
mystery. Last week I read A Great Reckoning
by Louise Penny. I have a love/hate response to her
stories. I like the location, a French speaking
Canadian village called Three Pines. I like the main character, Chief
Inspector Armand Gamache. And the plots make me eager to find out
what will happen next even when they seem unbelievable and/or
over-the-top.
Penny
quotes classic writers. I like that. And in Reckoning
she quotes Buddhist nun Pima Chödrön
who says, “Don't believe everything you think.” In Chödrön's
original context, she's trying to help us understand how we lead
ourselves away from acceptance and peace of mind with our inaccurate
thoughts. The sentence has quite a different feel to it when it is
used in the context of a murder investigation.
So
I finished Reckoning
and started listening to the audio version of The
Nature of the Beast. The
plan was to listen mainly when I was driving, but this afternoon I
started listening as I did housework. It slowed my work, and then I
didn't want to stop listening. My behavior doesn't entirely make
sense.
I
don't intend to stop reading mysteries, but I'm curious as to what
need they meet. Is it mainly entertainment? The satisfaction of a
problem solved? Escape? Any thoughts?
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