"Dance To The Music of Time: 1st Movement, Spring" by Anthony Powell ****

• Summer Read with Beth
• English author
• Originally published in 1951
• Review:  Imagine if you will.......you.....settled into a cozy chair, inside the mind of the protagonist of a novel, with nothing better to do than be a silent observer of his every thought and feeling.  Weird?  Boring?  Fascinating?  All of these feelings were part of my experience reading this first volume of "A Dance To The Music of Time:First Movement".  I am thoroughly impressed with Powell's ability to communicate the impressions, feelings and thoughts of a character to the degree he has done so in this novel.  Set in the early 1900s in London, the story moves through the development of a prep school coy as he matures and moves out into London society, dipping his toes in several different social groups.  As the volume ends, he may or may not have found love, and the reader is left heaving a sigh of relief at finishing this somewhat strenuous read, and also looking forward to the second volume.  Reading this novel is not for the reader who requires action.  It is more for the lover of the psychological.  It would be a five star read if not for the occasional long tedious stretches.