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I just finished "The Once and Future King"... it's a frustrating book at times, so long and wandering. Maybe it needs all that wandering to get to the payoff at the end, the frame borrowed by the musical "Camelot"; King Arthur, weary, heartsick, the triangle with Lancelot and Guenevere breaking him, and also his kingdom and all he strived to create, by his ill-borne son. I was moved by it, not that "Panera" is the best place for catharsis.

I liked this passage:

Elaine recognized Lancelot in two heartbeats. The first beat was a rising one which faltered at the top. The second one caught up with it, picked up its momentum from the crest of the wave, and both came down together like a rearing horse that falls.

Also:

Every letter written is a wound inflicted on the devil."

(attributed to a 'medieval abbot')

And finally, this bit of play between Lancelot and Guinevere, now well into middle age or beyond:

"Are you unhappy about something?"
"No. I was never so happy in my life. And I dare say I shall never be so happy again."
"Why so happy?"
"I don't know. It is because the spring has come after all, and there is the bright summer in front of us. Your arms will go brown again, just a flush along the top here, and a rosy round elbow. I am not sure I don't like the places where you bend best, like the insides of your elbows."

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What th'