This Rough Magic

There are so many kinds of magic. Stay with me here. I’m not sure where this is going. I recently participated with fellow actors in a zoom call with the South Carolina Shakespeare Company. We did a virtual reading of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. It’s one attempt we all are participating in to bring some semblance and order into a world of disorder and chaos. Just seeing familiar faces, joking, catching up, reading this incredible play, analyzing it, reaching out.

I’ve done similar meetings with my book group. Not a full complement of members but all sharing a common goal, a wish to connect, a love of literature and the joy of seeing familiar faces.

This is going on so much longer that we could have imagined. The hardest thing is we don’t know when it will end. Even though states and countries are beginning to open up, we don’t know, will there be a resurgence? What will the world look like when it’s over? Sorry for the drama. Even Pollyanna gets the blues. It will pass, I know.

I hate it most for the children. Will they even understand? Maybe it's actually easier. I just want them to be safe. When will I hold my loved ones again? What a joyous day that will be. We don't need the ultimate reason for why this has happened. It has. In the meantime, “this rough magic” of virtual love and connectedness will have to do.

For some extraordinary reason, it has been the most beautiful spring I can ever remember. So there’s that rough magic, too.

Be safe, All.

“But this rough magic
I here abjure, and, when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for…”

-Prospero, The Tempest

Act V, Scene 1

THE DISTANT HOURS- MAY 2020 BOOK SELECTION

In many ways Kate Morton’s novel, The Distant Hours is reminiscent of the old-fashioned gothic tales similar to Rebecca and Jane Eyre. A letter arrives after being lost for fifty years, a mother and daughter are estranged, a crumbling castle harboring ghosts and three spinster sisters with a lifetime of secrets all form the bones of an engrossing story.

Morton is a master storyteller and proves it again in her third novel. I’m a big fan of Morton’s style: twisty, winding, surprising and ultimately satisfying. The Distant Hours evokes an atmosphere and setting of time and place so beautifully written that you can feel, hear, see and smell the English countryside of Kent.

Not for the faint of heart, The Distant Hours clocks in at 576 pages. Fully worth the time for lovers of mystery and suspense. Morton artfully ties all loose threads together in overlapping tales of love, betrayal, loss and war. It’s a perfect time to dive in and lose yourself in another world.