Book 2 Post 1

For my second book I am reading Jan Morris's Hav, a novel following a protagonist through her travels to a lost city called Hav. I thought I'd read this because I haven't read a mysterious book in a few years and the description on the current issues website we were to pick from sounded enticing. 

The book starts by following the protagonist to a place that sounds like it used to be a world-class city and has since deteriorated. The protagonist meets a man in a Fiat that takes her to board a train - all of which seems connected as do scenes from a dream. As the protagonist arrives in the city, we the readers visualize Hav as a declining metropolis; the first person the protagonist meets shares how the Prince of Austria, Bismarck, Nijinsky, and Hitler have all visited Hav. Hav must be in the Islamic part of the world because we hear the sounds of the call to prayer in the morning and hear the protagonists description of minarets in the skyline.

The protagonist introduces herself to an army trumpeter as Jan Morris - now I know we are in the author's perspective traveling throughout Hav. Jan describes Hav as an Islamic city that resembles Cracow or Kiev, meaning it has Russian components and is likely in between the Islamic world and the Christian Russian world. All languages are spoken in Hav, showing how connected and important it was and may continue to be. 

I'm a little lost on where this book is going - if anyone else in the class is reading it I would be happy to discuss Jan's journey. I'm really enjoying the descriptions, which are so detailed and create such realistic images. I applaud the author for this, it's like watching a movie in my head. 

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