A quick tale 109

At your insistence

That’s the trouble with books like these. You love them so much that you reccomend it to people with an evangelical zeal. Oh, you’ll lovvvvvve it, you promise your friend as you stuff the book in her hands. You make her read the blurb and watch her face eagerly for reaction. Read the prologue, read the prologue, you urge her hoping that this will get her ecstatic. I know you’re going to lovvvvvve it, you keep repeating while making sure that she takes the book with her. A couple of weeks later, you bring up the book again. Casually, hiding the impatience in your voice. Has she reached that bit where the girl finds out about his past? No? Oh dear, what have you done! Forget what you said and get on with it. How far has she read then? She mumbles something about the early bits which you are sure is a mistake. Because it’s such a quick read.

Some months later, she returns the book. So what does she think? Great, wasn’t it? Yes, yes, she nods, she has never read anything quite like this. You beam like a mother who has just been told that her child has won the Nobel Prize after winning an Olympic gold medal during lunch break. By the way, you wonder, has she ever been to this restaurant? They serve the most amazing food! She has got to try it. She’ll lovvvvvvve it, you just know.