[ilds] Angst

[Kennedy Gammage]

Could we entertain a question about Egypt? We know Durrell's Alexandria is
largely gone (though maybe not along the waterfront?) - but what about Karm
Abu Girg, the Hosnani family place out in the desert? Are places like that
still extant?

Thanks - Ken

On Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 5:08 PM, Bruce Redwine <bredwine1968 at earthlink.net>
wrote:

> Richard,
>
> Interesting.  You describe a degree of alienation which I was unaware of.
> I guess you’re saying that Durrell had no home and was never “at home,”
> anywhere, even though he lived in Provence for over thirty years.  For all
> his gregariousness and conviviality, he had his work and little else:  “For
> those of use who stand upon the margins of the world, as yet unsolicited by
> any God, the only truth is that work itself is Love.”  Mountolive’s father
> says that, and he living in a remote monastery in India translating Pali
> texts!  So we return to Durrell’s India.
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 19, 2015, at 1:42 PM, mail at durrelllibrarycorfu.org wrote:
>
> Angst: no, that isn't what I meant.  There never was a "home" for Durrell
> - anywhere, after the Indian childhood, and, as we know, what he told us
> about that was partly fabricated and partly mistaken - but who does not
> mis-remember childhood and who does not imagine a childhood that was more
> golden than it really was. By "angst" I meant literally that LD did not
> like to return to places where he had been happy. How many of us have
> returned and found the place a disappointment, or one where old ghosts are
> less than welcoming? So it was a mixture of (a) knowing that he COULDN't go
> "home" (because if it had ever existed, it could no longer offer him the
> succour he needed all his life, and (b) simply the fear of disillusion,
> which, as I said, he certainly felt not merely on his return to Kalami (on
> which he wrote, including the essay "Oil for the Saint" but on several
> other subsequent visits, some (but not all) of which are recorded by
> MacNiven. (The unrecorded involved a few weeks,on 2 occasions,  on the dry,
> while he was working hard on the QUINTET, on both of which I have personal
> evidence from people he met and who are still living in Corfu)
> BTW, has anyone seen the DVD film "The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway" (BDV
> 018 made by a company named 'Beckmann', 80 minutes)) which has evocative
> shots of Kurseong. And there's another, a BBC series, 3x60 minute
> programmes, "Indian Hill Railways" which includes the Darjeeling line and 2
> others (EIE10718)
> And I repeat my reference to Ravi Nambiar's book - after we met him in San
> Diego, Jay Brigham went to stay with him in Kerala and I think this book is
> the fruit of Ravi's long contemplation of LD's "India" and was boosted by
> his conversations with Jay.
> RP
>
>
>
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