An Old Book is New Again

“No one was who they seemed. Everyone was more.”*

I don’t think it’s a secret I like Louise Penny’s books. I fairly fawned over her in my post about meeting her (How the Inspiration Gets In). I’ve been twiddling my thumbs eagerly waiting for her newest book to come out in August. So of course when I saw in her Facebook feed that her publisher was having The Chief Inspector Gamache Re-Read, I was in.

I never re-read books. Very rarely. Now I find myself re-reading an entire series. Whoa.

I’m discovering Quebec’s Montreal and (fictitious) Three Pines and meeting the characters in a new way. Instead of for the first time, I’m seeing it all in a new light, as a reader with the whole (or more of) picture. I can focus on the details, the nuances.

How did I discover Penny’s novels in the first place? I read about them somewhere, before the Penny’s novels were so well known, and recommended them to a friend who is from Montreal. She started reading them, enjoyed them and recommended them right back. I read them and fell in love.

As I read the books again I actually find myself laughing and commenting out loud. I’ve been reading Still Life and now A Fatal Grace alone wishing someone was sitting in an armchair next to me, reading along so we could quote to each other, laugh, gasp, and say things like “I never noticed this before!” I can do some of that virtually from The Chief Inspector Gamache Re-Read, but it sure is hard to restrain myself from engaging in conversation with my eight-year-old son or husband about the quirky characters of Three Pines.

It’s not only those quirky characters that I love. One of the things I really enjoy about the Gamache series is the sense of place and culture. My grandmother spent a much of her childhood on a homestead in Canada. My family traveled and camped through Ontario a few times. Living in Wisconsin, we’re practically neighbors with Canada. Even with all those connections I still didn’t know much about Canada’s history and culture. Louise Penny deftly weaves Canadian culture and social issues, like the the food (Oh, the Food!) and French language, into her books. But also issues like communication difficulties and prejudices between Anglophones and Francophones, and Native American rights and immigration. Each book leaves me craving more.

There’s something about the town of Three Pines and its inhabitants that remind me of the town where my father grew up, where I spent much of my youth. Well, minus the murder. A town full of characters. Characters that were real and flawed and beautiful; every single one of them with a story to tell. And all of them interconnected.

I cannot overstate how much I love the people and their stories in Three Pines. If you’ve tried the series and not liked it you’re doing it wrong. Skimming maybe. Distracted possibly. Try the series again. Read every word.

*From Still Life about the people of Three Pines