Going Like a Bomb

I can’t resist posting another little bit from A Book Addict’s Treasury. This is a quote from Russell Hoban’s Turtle Diary, and is included in the “Buying Books” section (p 100).

Today one of those women who never know titles came into the shop. They are the source of Knightsbridge lady soup and they ask for a good book for a nephew or something new on roses for a gardening husband. This one wanted a novel, “something for a good read at the cottage”. I offered her Procurer to the King by Fallopia Bothways. Going like a bomb with the menopausal set. She gasped, and I realized that I’d actually spoken the thought aloud: “Going like a bomb with the menopausal set.”

She went quite red. “What did you say?” she said.

“Going like a bomb, it’s the best she’s written yet,” I said, and looked very dim.