On Inconvenient Communities

My reading tastes tend to change with the climate. Whilst in Singapore, I tend towards long poems and pop psychology books, pieces that hold facts and phrases to be chewed over over long commutes. During the winter months—which I largely spend in the U.S.—I favor more rambly forms: give me epistolary novels and travel-writing; give me overly-detailed descriptions of the mundane!

This winter, I returned to one of my favorite texts—84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff—a novel which I tend to binge-read in a single seating no matter how many times I’ve read it. 84 Charing Cross weaves together the real-life letters between a snarky, charming New York writer—Helene Hanff herself—and a curmudgeonly British bookseller, Frank Doel. He sends her the books she asks for over the Atlantic; she responds with demands for more books and dried egg and stockings and cake for him and his family and friends. This was the 1950s, when everything was rationed in the U.K. despite World War II having ended.

What I adore about this book is its charting of the wonders of being imposed upon. Frank goes out of his way to hunt down the books Helene asks for; Helene figures out how to send her British friends the supplies they sorely need. And among their busy schedules, they find time to dash off short, heartfelt letters to one another.

As Lizzy Rice says, “community is inefficient and inconvenient as shit,” but oh, how lovely to be part of one!

More reading here: https://annehelen.substack.com/p/how-to-show-up-for-your-friends-without