Walking the Wall

As I wrote before, I think the best quote of the book is on page 5:

My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth, at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie.

For Margaret, the truth was sacred and she wanted nothing but truth in her own life and from Vida if she wanted her to write her biography. I think in the end, both personally and professionally, she realized that sometimes truth is much more heavier to bear than a story.

It is also a story about connections, which is a favorite theme of mine, and I liked this passage:

    When I came to myself Dr. Clifton was there. He put an arm around me. "I know," he said. "I know.
    He didn’t know, of course. Not really. And yet that was what he said, and I was soothed to hear it. For I knew what he meant. We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all. "I know," he said, because he was human, and therefore in a way, he did (389).

It was an altogether enjoyable book, Setterfield has a wonderful voice and cadence and the characters came to life, lived and breathed, and made you care what happened to them.