A Fatal Grace (Armand Gamache Series #2) Book

Now that it's been announced that Louise Penny will co-author her next novel with her famous friend Hillary Clinton, I'm really looking forward to reading it!

Hopefully, I'll be giving another Exceptionally well-written book five stars, as I have this one.

Louise Penny is a Supernova in the Canadian literary firmament. And her warmth and human compassion is especially endearing, as is her supercharged inspiration in concocting such an endlessly labyrinthine structure for her book.

Her writing is excellent. And enchanting.

I loved it.

But why do its premises draw me into a dangerously dead-ended pattern of thinking?

Let me explain.

Isn't this yet another return to the flawed Golden Age Theory? The novel is great, but this idea bugs me.

The mythical Québec village of Three Pines, with its country-club coziness among the chief residents, nestled as it is so quaintly in the Eastern Townships, is an Eldorado which calls out to principal players like Gamache, CC, and Saul to rest in its eternal Shangri-la - like the island of the Lotus Eaters in Homer.

It's the Sunset World of Trungpa's classic Shambhala. A place of moral entropy. Welcome to the Hotel California!

And in the master's chambers
They all gather for the Feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the Beast.

The beast is never a stranger here. For a foggy moral cloud hangs over Three Pines, and murderous evil always returns, unseen.

Oh, there indeed is rest here, though - a bit, and some stupor too. But there is no clear-eyed judgement on the part of the residents.

It's a lot like one of those Florida senior villages, where the staff always tries to shut out all the nasty shadows of life.

But life's shadows are an essential part of relishing the refreshment of clear sunlight - there... and here.

And double toil and trouble for all the villagers, as a result. And Gamache too, God bless'm!

They have no ethical vigor, as Poirot and Miss Marple once had in ABUNDANCE!

And so must pay the piper.

For -

Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow...

The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

THAT is the Real Three Pines. A lot like a "happy" seniors' home!

So why not call it by its real name?

Well, simple. That would steal all the romance and adventure from Penny's wonderful plot. And that would be too bad.

So I hope my little wistful Jeremiad doesn't seem too out of place in a five star review. Cause I really loved the book.

And if you read this book you'll LOVE it as I did - IF you believe the Shadow ALWAYS haunts us all!