What a pleasure it is to read Chaconne, the debut novel of Canberra author Diana Blackwood! There’s a serious coming-of-age story here, but the book is laced with delicious puns and droll set pieces and I loved the way Blackwood has subverted the clichés of the Romantic Paris genre.
She dressed neatly enough for Café Obertor and put on her walking shoes. While she was tying the laces, it occurred to her that any Parisian veneer she might have acquired was already slipping away. She no longer felt compelled to expend thought on her appearance if she wasn’t so inclined. In Paris she had almost always made some kind of effort because the city itself seemed to demand it: the scarf knotted just so, the jaunty accent of colour that showed you hadn’t thrown on your clothes in the half-dark but had put together a look in front of the…
View original post 1,203 more words
The Logical Place 