It’s been a couple of months since my last Delicious descriptions – life has been particularly busy – but I can’t resist stopping for a moment to share this one. It comes during one of my favourite set pieces in Chris Flynn’s A tiger in Eden which I reviewed a couple of days ago. This piece tells of a 10-day Buddhist retreat that the protagonist, Billy, attends. It’s one of those retreats where you remain silent for 10 days, meditate, do yoga, eat vegetarian food, and so on. Since I have taken up yoga (again) over the last few years, his description tickled me:
Golden Bow (Courtesy: OCAL, via clker.com)
Some of the moves were hard even though I was fit as f*ck sure I couldn’t do them, stretching dead far till you thought your tendons would snap I was sweating so I was. I always thought the yoga was a load of aul hippy shite, no one told me it was a workout. After a couple of days I was dead into it though and practising in my cell sure I could near get my legs behind my head flexible as f*ck it turns out, who knew sure I could always find work as a stripper if nothing else worked out.
This little excerpt gives you another look at Billy’s voice and how Flynn has gone about achieving it. I liked the sound of it in my head as I read (notwithstanding the liberal use of expletives!).
Whispering Gums 
Fantastic! You’ve just turned this into another ‘must buy’! (note to self, maybe I should stop reading blogs, reading list getting too long! 🙂 )
Oh, that’s great cheezyk, I’m rather chuffed that the quote increased your interest. It is such a unique and interesting voice even if the actual plot is a pretty straightforward. (I know what you mean about reading blogs though … the good thing about this one is that it’s short!)
Oh, that’s not quite what I meant – it’s more a matter of the fact that so far this year I have already bought or downloaded six new books and have added at least that many to my wish list, based solely on the recommendations in the blogs I read (and that’s not counting the ones that I’ve added based on my own research or observations … or the new cookbooks)
Sorry, cheeky, I can see I was ambiguous … I knew what you meant and was saying that this novel is short, not that my blog is short because it usually isn’t!! I admire you for reading the reviews you do!
Gosh, I must be doing yoga all wrong! That wasn’t at all what my mind was thinking at our yoga retreat last month 😉
Must say, I was too busy worrying about where my legs were to think of anything else!
Gosh…I can see we need to try a little harder next term…and silence? Clearly we have some work to do!
Ah, I drew you out at last Andy! Tell the girls that our aim next term is to get our legs behind our heads! But not aiming for a new profession or anything!
Oh that is wonderful! And I can heartily agree with the sentiment. The place I worked a number of year ago has a early morning yoga class employees could take so I thought, sure, I’ll give it a try, how hard could it be? Turns out it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was!
Oh thanks Stefanie … it is wonderful isn’t it. I think a lot of people don’t realise what a work out it can be, particularly if you do it properly. Do you still do yoga?
No, no more yoga. After about a year and half the instructor who was doing the class at my workplace couldn’t do it there any longer and while I had enjoyed the twice weekly sessions, I didn’t have the ambition or time to find a studio and go there regularly instead. Maybe one day I will take it up again.
That’s fair enough … it’s a great retirement activity. It provides the workout without the harshness of the more vigorous, driven exercise regimes, and has the mentally calming aspect too. Of course it helps to have a wonderful yoga teacher running a small, friendly personal class right across the road.