Four Twin Sister Blocks

I’ve been trying to convince myself to reread Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. The last time I read this book I found it dreadfully dull. I had nothing in common with the petty characters, who seemed only interested in what was “in fashion.” But I’ve found letting a book sit for ten years or more before reading it again can produce a change – most likely in the reader rather than in the book itself. Then early in the book I found this passage: “Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.” And somehow it struck a chord. We’re always scrambling at the end of a play or a concert to be the first out of the door. We dread to be stuck in a traffic jam on the way home, especially when the curtain falls well past bedtime. Maybe I have something in common with these people after all.