'But don't you think Rabelais is a little old for him?' asked Mother doubtfully.
'Good, clean fun,' said Larry airily; 'it's important that he gets sex in its right perspective now.'" [2/2]

Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals, 1956.

#amreading #GeraldDurrell #LawrenceDurrell #Rabelais

"“Scarcely had we settled into the strawberry-pink villa before Mother decided that I was running wild, and that it was necessary for me to have some sort of education. [...]
'Literature,' said Larry, with conviction, 'that's what he wants, a good solid grounding in literature. The rest will follow naturally. I've been encouraging him to read some good stuff.' [1/2]

#GeraldDurrell

I started reading Gerald Durrell's Corfu trilogy and I suspect that many sneering MFA types today would declare it "overwritten." But who the fuck cares?

Yes, the prose employs too many similes and is unapologetically descriptive -- possibly prolix and ostentatious. But I would rather read Durrell describing "green shutters folded back from their windows like the wings of a thousand moths" than any of the desiccated blandness that passes for hip "literature" today.

Imagination, having a weirdass idiosyncratic worldview -- these are the qualities I care about more than how much you can mimic Lorrie Moore or Garielle Lutz or what your alt-lit streetcred is. Small wonder that fewer people read these days.

#books #reading #overwritten #geralddurrell

@rosiehare My Family and Other Animals was written by the #zoologist #GeraldDurrell about his family's five-year stay in #1930s #Corfu, where he learned from polymath #TheodoreStephanides - a central concern of the #veryfunny book is the child Gerald's collection of animals, including a #ScopsOwl @bookstodon

Soooo, new here like many recently, and stumbling around like we do on the island. Love #greece and #corfu of course and esp. it’s #literary heritage: #LawrenceDurrell and his brother #geralddurrell, #edwardlear and his #landscapepainting of the #island and the #balkans, #johnsingersargent #corfuliteraryfestival #ireland #europe