I have been reading my second copy of Aidan Chambers’ novel, Dance on my grave, after having a temporary break during a visit to a physiotherapist for my back, when I think the book was left behind in my hurry for the exit.
I think the novel has something very lovely about it and as yet, I am just flowing with the voice of Hal the narrator and protagonist, waiting to find what the loveliness actually is.
But in the meantime I really appreciated Hal’s admission that all his teenage life he had been waiting to find the friend with the ‘magic can of beans.’
How casually right I feel this is. Perhaps it is about energy and rapport. Maybe it captures that real buzz of recognition when we meet someone and KNOW something is there, in between us, dancing like ‘the can of magic beans.’
And what happens when we open up the can I wonder?
And can the beans be planted elsewhere and then grow again?
And are the beans as much inside ourselves as out there with the special ‘bosom pal’?
I’ll have to read on…