The sequel to 'The Clairvoyant Countess' is 'Kaleidoscope'. I adore kaleidoscopes, have done since I was a little girl. The brilliant colours shifting & clicking, bright as jewels against the sun. This book is also, again, filled with patterns: chance meetings, interwoven with coincidence & Choice.
Quote 1: 'No one in the subway car appeared startled that Madame Karitska had been tossed a small attache case by an apparent stranger. At the next station she left the train, and once above ground, she signaled a cruising taxi: this was one time, she felt, when it was expedient not to be walking the streets...' (page 5, paragraph 2)
Urban dwellers are such jaded creatures.
Quote 2: 'She blurted out, "My name's Betsy Oliver," and then--again startled--she added, "I didn't expect you to look so...so...I thought you'd look more like a gypsy fortune-teller."
"Life is full of disappointments, is it not," said Madame Karitska humorously...' (page 10, paragraph 4)
Marina Karitska is not jaded, merely unflappable.
1 Visual: 'She held it up to admire. Hanging from a long gold chain was a heart-shaped turquoise-colored stone in which five tiny gold stars had been set, the turquoise framed by a hammered-gold heart-shaped frame, from which were suspended three gold coins.' (page 181-2, paragraph 7-1)
So pretty to be filled with such heartbreak.
I, most of all, have enjoyed your commentary ;-)
ReplyDelete:)
Delete