Youth Book

The Summer of 1963 will be forever etched in my memory like the tablet of arcane hieroglyphics which it was: for it was the beginnings of my voyage into the mysterious, outré world of adulthood.

That Summer I was Sinbad the Sailor, sailing uncharted waters into vaguely baroque territory.

For as I reclined on the deck of my grandmother's en-suite apartment at my parents' new house, the whole world was rebeginning.

The sultry zephyr of a humid breeze brushed my cheek drowsily, and, as the sounds of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade filled the languid summer air from her screen door, I dreamed dreams of a brave new world of exploration.

Concurrent with this memory, I had taken Conrad's Youth in its slim, gold-leaf embossed leather, down from her groaning new bookshelves, crammed full with masterpieces.

What a story.

It is a young 19th century mariner's first glimpse of the perfumed, exotic East.

Yes, you guessed it - the Voyage to the East (and this masterpiece is of utterly comparable stature to Hermann Hesse's fantastical tale!) is a Symbol of Coming of Age.

What romance!

What wild adventure!

What astoundingly reminiscent memories it calls up in OUR souls of that magical, dangerous time in our untried, ingenuous lives!

It is one of my All-Time Favorites, and it now has a place of honour atop the bookshelves in our living room next to the stereo.

If you are a kid beginning your own version of this voyage, or a busy grown-up who just wants to unwind a bit, or even a grisled old-timer like me who reads books like this slowly, musingly, as one would listen to a sensitively played Chopin Mazurka or sip on a premium cognac (have you ever tried Hennessy's Paradis?) - you'll love it!

Coming of age is NEVER easy.

My wise old grandmother knew that, and her two housewarming gifts to me, a 13-year old bookworm:

As she came to them, in sorting through her endless much-travelled shipping containers -

Were a good book of moral guidance for teens -

And a book of inspirational quotations.

You know what?

In my moral torpor I promptly lost track of them.

And now, I rue the day I did.

But this one I Still display PROUDLY!

For to a kid commencing it, it beckons like an exotic aroma of Eastern spices...

It's a mysterious Orient that promises endless Odysseys of Self-Discovery.