Peanut Brittle

As you know, I am officially on holidays now, and what more fitting for the first week of holidays than to finally get round to reading F. Scott Fitzgerald's This Side of Paradise?  Because that is what I've done.  I was thinking I might even be a bit naughty and read a couple of books simultaneously.  Just to shake it up a little and avoid falling into the lingering slough of despond that waits to gobble up bored readers.  I ordered Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer from the library, but it'll obviously take some time to arrive.  I know the story well since the film is a family favourite, but I'm sure that his writing will make it wonderful regardless. 

However, in true Fiztgerald style, I am already hooked in This Side of Paradise on a line:

"The invitation to Miss Myra St. Claire's bobbing party spent the morning in his coat pocket, where it had an intense physical affair with a dusty piece of peanut brittle".

Isn't it great?  That fantastic, almost random idea, like an orchestra's forte blast to make sure that no one falls asleep, (a trick my school strings ensemble has often had to use).  He's a clever, clever, clever writer!