Lord Jim

In a dusty cardboard box I found my father’s old copy of Joseph Conrad’s Lord Jim. Published in 1900, my father held the book dear and passed it on to me. I’ve read Lord Jim more than once over the years: Jim as a seaman cadet … Jim’s abject failure as first mate on the ship Patna … then Jim’s defeated withdrawal to the isolation of the Malaysian Archipelago. There, Jim hoped for sanctuary … perhaps relief from his failure … perhaps even to prove himself worthy. I do not pretend to entirely understand Jim … though I do see in Jim something of myself.