It’s said that in times of trouble and distress, we move towards the comfortable. On Tuesday, I completed a writing course hosted by Richard Kadrey where he held a video chat among the course participants. We talked about where to go after the course, about staying inspired, and about different places we could find inspiration. Kadrey, and quite a few others, noted they were going back to ‘comfort reads’ – though for some, this included Cormac McCarthy’s The Road – as a touchstone.
My comfort read is also some comfort viewing: Cadfael.
I was introduced to this monk of 12th century Shrewsbury, England, via Derek Jacobi’s brilliant performance on the Cadfael TV adaptations from the late 90’s. A series of 90-minute TV movies made for the UK, it brought to life the Cadfael Chronicles novels written by translator, author, and historian Edith Pargeter under the name Ellis Peters. It was from these movies I went to the books, thanks to the eBook lending program at the Montgomery County Library (Check it out if you are having trouble affording eBooks – your library may have a similar program).
The books are set during a civil war in England between King Stephen and Empress Maud called “The Anarchy,” but the action focuses around the village of Shrewsbury, just across the river from Wales, and the Monastery home of the Benedictine Monk Cadfael. Once a sailor, soldier, and sinner, he joined the order late in life, bringing with him worldly knowledge, and an expertise in medicine & herbalism. He would be called upon to act as a 12th century crime scene investigator, speaking for those God has taken into his fold.
The books are an exemplar of historical mysteries – and they are cozy mysteries, with their own tropes and themes – but why I take comfort in them is the atmosphere they evoke. Because the author is so steeped in the period, the history, and the locations, she’d able to build a world that’s both alien and familiar, all at once. She doesn’t drown us in history lessons, she reminds us that history and the people living it are not separable. Through the books – and I haven’t read them all, not yet – we see the impact of the war on nobles and common folk alike. We see lives impacted by law, faith, seasons, and disease. We see folks grow and change, friendships form, and relationships strain during troubled times.
It is this sense of people and place – that they are living through hard times but still think of family, friends, lovers, enemies, and all things that make us human – that makes the Cadfael books my current comfort read.
Now, if only poor Brother Oswin would stop moving recently heated pots into ice water and wondering why they crack…
Biomechanoid Blues 