A Matter of Feeling

Every now and then as a child, my father's parents would take my cousin Richard and myself (and occasionally my cousin Holly) to The Mall. This was always a big deal for me as The Mall was 45 minutes away from where we lived and we didn't go there very often. When we did go, however, I'd have a bit of money just waiting to be spent. Almost every time, my money was spent on books. When I was about 11 or 12, I found a gem called "A Matter of Feeling". First published in 1977, it was written by Janine Boissard in French and translated into English by Elizabeth Walter in 1979 - I only just realized this today - I must have purchased my copy only a year or two after it was printed in English. At any rate, it's a girlhood favorite and I must have read it 10 times while growing up, although some of it didn't make much sense to me at the time. The book is definitely well loved - the spine is torn, the front cover hangs by a thread, the pages are now yellowed and becoming brittle. For some reason, it has called to me to pick it up, dust it off, and read it again. Maybe now, with some life experience behind me, I can add yet another layer of meaning to this story about a young girl and her first love.