The Twilight saga by Stephenie Meyer
~ Great series of 4 books which many of my friends also devoured and they are definitely on my re-read list.
The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver
~ I found this book amazing and absolutely needed to share it with someone so I asked my friend Amanda to read it and we still need to talk about it.
Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of its Own by Doreen Orion
~ Great book, great stories, great recipes...but even greater is how amazing the queenly author is. She really connects with her fans and I've enjoyed that quite a lot.
The Confessions of Georgia Nicolson series by Louise Rennison
~ Though this series of nine books is for young adults I hysterically laughed out loud multiple times (ask Josh :)) while reading each book and would love to own them so I can re-read them again and again. The titles alone made me laugh outloud and inspired me to read them.
Peculiar Treasures and On a Whim by Robin Jones Gunn
~ As always, I love anything and everything written by this author and I particularly love that she has continued on my favorite characters through this Katie Weldon series. Looking forward to more over the next few years.
My Life in France by Julia Child
~ This was an amazing book which told me so much more about Julia Child's life than I had ever realized. She had a very full life with so many adventures and neat experiences. I loved it and would highly recommend it to anyone who likes autobiographies or books about food culture.
All the President's Pastries by Roland Mesnier
~ This was a really fascinating book about the former pastry chef at the White House for over 20 years. Great pictures, neat stories and several recipes are included.
The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones
~ Though this was fiction, it really read like a non-fiction story. I found it fascinating and very enjoyable to read. Beautiful descriptions and a neat love story too.
Around the World in 80 Dinners by Bill Jamison
~ Intriguing idea for an anniversary trip by the author and his wife. Though sometimes slow, I liked how descriptive they were about the foods and travel and quite enjoyed the book.
Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account by Miklos Nyiszli
~ Not a fun book to read, but important and a different perspective from many books written about the Holocaust as the author was a prisoner whose medical skills saved him from death, though at what cost?
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber
~ This was a very large book, but it never felt tiresome to read. Intriguing story and interesting characters made for a great novel which I enjoyed reading and discussing with Aunt Annette.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
~ Interesting non-fiction about a family's decision to eat locally and organically for one year growing most of the food themselves or obtaining it from a short distance from their farm. It really made the idea of growing vegetables sound good and I specifically enjoyed the short essays written by their teenage daughter which included recipes.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
My favorites for 2008
Here is my list of my favorite books that I read in 2008 (just a few more than the target number of 10). What are yours?
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer
The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family: Duong Van Mai Elliott
Queenof the Road : The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of its Own by Doreen Orion
The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls
Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War by Donald McCaig
China, Inc: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, by Ted C. Fishman
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer
Catfish and Mandala: A Two Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Roar of the Heavens: Surviving Hurricane Camille, Stefan Bechtel
Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon.
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shaffer
The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family: Duong Van Mai Elliott
Queenof the Road : The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of its Own by Doreen Orion
The Glass Castle: A Memoir, by Jeannette Walls
Jacob's Ladder: A Story of Virginia During the War by Donald McCaig
China, Inc: How the Rise of the Next Superpower Challenges America and the World, by Ted C. Fishman
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer
Catfish and Mandala: A Two Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
Roar of the Heavens: Surviving Hurricane Camille, Stefan Bechtel
Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Dragonfly in Amber, Diana Gabaldon.
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
The next book is...
...The Wedding Officer: a novel of culinary seduction by Anthony Capella.
I figured we could take a break for the rest of this month though and start reading again in January. Does that work for both of you? I know I have some other books I'd like to read over my Christmas break just for myself. It's been fun reading together and sharing our thoughts and opinions. I'm glad we decided to do this. Love you! *hugs*
I figured we could take a break for the rest of this month though and start reading again in January. Does that work for both of you? I know I have some other books I'd like to read over my Christmas break just for myself. It's been fun reading together and sharing our thoughts and opinions. I'm glad we decided to do this. Love you! *hugs*
The Eyre Affair - from Keri's perspective
I have to agree with Aunt Annette that this was not my favorite book. It was confusing to say the least, especially since I had never read Jane Eyre and didn't know much about British history. However, it did inspire me to do some research into the Crimean war and to ask my student workers about the actual ending of Jane Eyre which helped clear some things up for me.
My feeling is that the book, and specifically Thursday's father's character, was trying to say that someone had gone into the past to change the future for their own gain. Though it was never said directly, I felt that most likely it was Goliath who had done so specifically so that they could control. Certain things mentioned made this seem true - like the long-lasting Crimean War (which actually ended much more quickly in reality) which was heavily dependent on Goliath for weapons and security.
I also liked the idea of the bookworms and the ability to enter works of literature, but as they discovered it could be used in harmful ways like killing a main character or trapping someone from reality in fiction. I did enjoy the idea of taking a vacation into a novel like the Japanese woman did for her clients. I would love the opportunity to step into Gone with the Wind or Wuthering Heights. :)
I found much of the novel confusing because it was somewhat similar to reality, but completely different in other ways. Like Aunt Annette, I had a hard time believing that in a world where they could time travel, carry somewhat sophisticated weapons, and clone animals that they would be flying in airships and so obsessed with Shakespeare, Bacon, etc.
As for the love connection it didn't bother me too much even though so much time had passed. I believe it is entirely possible to still have a connection and love after all that time...especially when there was a deep friendship and some tragedy in their past. I wanted Landen and Thursday to get back together and was happy that she did not end up with her partner Bowden.
Some interesting quotes:
"...the bedside drawer. It was full. Apart from the Gideon's Bible there were the teachings of Buddha and an English copy of the Koran. There was also a GSD volume of prayer and a Wesleyian pamphlet, two amulets from the Society for Christian Awareness, the thoughts of St. Zvlkx and the now mandatory Complete Works of William Shakespeare."
"(Wordsworth speaking) 'Everything that I once was is now here; my life is contained in my works. A life in volumes of words; it is poetic."
"Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity and kindness is for losers. The best reason for committing loathsome and detestable acts - and let's face it, I am considered something of an expert in this field - is purely for their own sake. Monetary gain is all very well, but it dilutes the taste of wickedness to a lower level that is obtainable by almost anyone with an overdeveloped sense of avarice. True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good -"
"Forgive and forget is all very well, but no one was going to forgive and forget my brother. Anton's name was mud and that was solely down to Landen."
"...we all make mistakes at some time in our lives, some more than others. It is only when the cost is counted in human lives that people really take notice. If Anton had been a baker and forgotten the yeast, nothing would have been made of it, but he would have f...ed up just the same."
"The first casualty of war is always truth. Landen was trying to redress that. Don't think that he didn't agonize long and hard over it - it would have been easier to lie and clear Ant's name. But a small lie always breeds a bigger one. The military can ill afford more than it has already. Landen knew that and so too, I think, did our Anton."
"It was the dismay that I would always feel the same rather than the dismay over the unpleasant ending to the evening which upset me most."
My feeling is that the book, and specifically Thursday's father's character, was trying to say that someone had gone into the past to change the future for their own gain. Though it was never said directly, I felt that most likely it was Goliath who had done so specifically so that they could control. Certain things mentioned made this seem true - like the long-lasting Crimean War (which actually ended much more quickly in reality) which was heavily dependent on Goliath for weapons and security.
I also liked the idea of the bookworms and the ability to enter works of literature, but as they discovered it could be used in harmful ways like killing a main character or trapping someone from reality in fiction. I did enjoy the idea of taking a vacation into a novel like the Japanese woman did for her clients. I would love the opportunity to step into Gone with the Wind or Wuthering Heights. :)
I found much of the novel confusing because it was somewhat similar to reality, but completely different in other ways. Like Aunt Annette, I had a hard time believing that in a world where they could time travel, carry somewhat sophisticated weapons, and clone animals that they would be flying in airships and so obsessed with Shakespeare, Bacon, etc.
As for the love connection it didn't bother me too much even though so much time had passed. I believe it is entirely possible to still have a connection and love after all that time...especially when there was a deep friendship and some tragedy in their past. I wanted Landen and Thursday to get back together and was happy that she did not end up with her partner Bowden.
Some interesting quotes:
"...the bedside drawer. It was full. Apart from the Gideon's Bible there were the teachings of Buddha and an English copy of the Koran. There was also a GSD volume of prayer and a Wesleyian pamphlet, two amulets from the Society for Christian Awareness, the thoughts of St. Zvlkx and the now mandatory Complete Works of William Shakespeare."
"(Wordsworth speaking) 'Everything that I once was is now here; my life is contained in my works. A life in volumes of words; it is poetic."
"Goodness is weakness, pleasantness is poisonous, serenity is mediocrity and kindness is for losers. The best reason for committing loathsome and detestable acts - and let's face it, I am considered something of an expert in this field - is purely for their own sake. Monetary gain is all very well, but it dilutes the taste of wickedness to a lower level that is obtainable by almost anyone with an overdeveloped sense of avarice. True and baseless evil is as rare as the purest good -"
"Forgive and forget is all very well, but no one was going to forgive and forget my brother. Anton's name was mud and that was solely down to Landen."
"...we all make mistakes at some time in our lives, some more than others. It is only when the cost is counted in human lives that people really take notice. If Anton had been a baker and forgotten the yeast, nothing would have been made of it, but he would have f...ed up just the same."
"The first casualty of war is always truth. Landen was trying to redress that. Don't think that he didn't agonize long and hard over it - it would have been easier to lie and clear Ant's name. But a small lie always breeds a bigger one. The military can ill afford more than it has already. Landen knew that and so too, I think, did our Anton."
"It was the dismay that I would always feel the same rather than the dismay over the unpleasant ending to the evening which upset me most."
The Eyre Affair - by Kelly
Well, I have to agree that the book was rather confusing with the alternate universe - wars going on, etc. But I came to a completely different conclusion! I loved it! I like weird stuff like this, and I have to admit I really like how much shorter and lighter it was than books we've read before. One thing I'd not noticed, but my dad caught when I had him read it, was that there'd been a German occupation of England in this universe before they dealt with Hitler. Scary to contemplate! I think, too, that the reason they kept using the airships was just because people liked them - though I think the author was just trying for an oddity, the balance between new technology and old technology.
I really loved all the literary references - the WillSpeak machines, the Richard III play (sounds like fun! Wish I could attend!), Baconians, etc. I just like the idea of a world where literature is such a big part of life. I have never read Martin Chuzzlewit, so all that went entirely over my head, and, like Aunt Annette mentioned, if you hadn't read Jane Eyre (or at least seen the movie), a lot of that would go over peoples' heads too.
I loved all the inventions that her uncle came up with and the bookworms were fascinating. Wouldn't it be fun to jump into a favorite book!? Not to mess with the storyline, but it see it happen? Like the Japanese lady taking people there on tours... too cool.
Overall, I realize it's no great work of literature and has nothing really meaningful to take to heart, but I loved it and plan to buy all the sequels. One quote I really liked -
"...when my mind was young and the barrier between reality and make-believe had not yet hardened into the shell that cocoons us in adult life. The barrier was soft, pliable and, for a moment, thanks to the kindness of a stranger and the power of a good storytelling voice, I made the short journey - and returned."
I love the idea of a mind being young that accepts so many things as real - fairies, monsters and Santa Claus. And I especially like the idea that, if your mind is young, you can transport yourself into books you love - imagination and all that. :o)
I really loved all the literary references - the WillSpeak machines, the Richard III play (sounds like fun! Wish I could attend!), Baconians, etc. I just like the idea of a world where literature is such a big part of life. I have never read Martin Chuzzlewit, so all that went entirely over my head, and, like Aunt Annette mentioned, if you hadn't read Jane Eyre (or at least seen the movie), a lot of that would go over peoples' heads too.
I loved all the inventions that her uncle came up with and the bookworms were fascinating. Wouldn't it be fun to jump into a favorite book!? Not to mess with the storyline, but it see it happen? Like the Japanese lady taking people there on tours... too cool.
Overall, I realize it's no great work of literature and has nothing really meaningful to take to heart, but I loved it and plan to buy all the sequels. One quote I really liked -
"...when my mind was young and the barrier between reality and make-believe had not yet hardened into the shell that cocoons us in adult life. The barrier was soft, pliable and, for a moment, thanks to the kindness of a stranger and the power of a good storytelling voice, I made the short journey - and returned."
I love the idea of a mind being young that accepts so many things as real - fairies, monsters and Santa Claus. And I especially like the idea that, if your mind is young, you can transport yourself into books you love - imagination and all that. :o)
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
The Eyre Affair - from Annette
I wanted to like this book. I liked its literary bias. There were humorous moments and some clever concepts. But basically I really didn't like it. Partly this would be because I don't like science fiction, only occasionally tolerate time travel books, and have only a passing interest in alternative universe concepts. This of course was all that and then some...but I don't think done very well. It seemed cluttered and the pacing seem to hiccup between slow and fast.
I was confused for a long time as to what timeframe the book was in. Once I finally figured out that it was taking place in England somewhere in the 1990s or so...I realized that we were dealing with a completely different concept of what is going on in the world and what has gone on...essentially almost a parallel universe . Very little made sense to me.
I couldn't figure out how in a world where they can time travel and clone dodos and other extinct animals why people are using slow moving dirrigibles to fly around England. If the world was so advanced then why are they still fighting a fairly conventional war in the Crimea.
And why in heavens name are they still fighting over the crimea. And why is Russia still a monarchy. whatever has been going on assumes no soviet union, no rise of communisn? Why? And why would we still be fighting over the crimean peninsula...in today's world it is of no value.
all these things really spoiled the book for me. I think if she had placed the story somewhere in the future and hadn't distorted previous known history that I might have liked the book. I did like the dodos, plock, plock. Although, once was enough.
The whole bookworm idea...was kind of cute...and provided an interesting concept (to be able to enter a book)...this was oddly the part of the book that worked best for me. The whole way she "influences" the content of Jane Eyre. Although if the reader had never read Jane Eyre...much of the cleverness of this bit would be lost.
And I didn't buy the romance with the old boyfriend. Its been 10 years...there is a lot of water under the bridge...and then pow...they are back together to tidy up the end of the book. hmmm.
At least it was short!
I was confused for a long time as to what timeframe the book was in. Once I finally figured out that it was taking place in England somewhere in the 1990s or so...I realized that we were dealing with a completely different concept of what is going on in the world and what has gone on...essentially almost a parallel universe . Very little made sense to me.
I couldn't figure out how in a world where they can time travel and clone dodos and other extinct animals why people are using slow moving dirrigibles to fly around England. If the world was so advanced then why are they still fighting a fairly conventional war in the Crimea.
And why in heavens name are they still fighting over the crimea. And why is Russia still a monarchy. whatever has been going on assumes no soviet union, no rise of communisn? Why? And why would we still be fighting over the crimean peninsula...in today's world it is of no value.
all these things really spoiled the book for me. I think if she had placed the story somewhere in the future and hadn't distorted previous known history that I might have liked the book. I did like the dodos, plock, plock. Although, once was enough.
The whole bookworm idea...was kind of cute...and provided an interesting concept (to be able to enter a book)...this was oddly the part of the book that worked best for me. The whole way she "influences" the content of Jane Eyre. Although if the reader had never read Jane Eyre...much of the cleverness of this bit would be lost.
And I didn't buy the romance with the old boyfriend. Its been 10 years...there is a lot of water under the bridge...and then pow...they are back together to tidy up the end of the book. hmmm.
At least it was short!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Next Book is...
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - "Filled with clever wordplay, literary allusion and bibliowit, The Eyre Affair combines elements of Monty Python, Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But its quirky charm is all its own." ~ The Wall Street Journal
How can you NOT want to read this after a review like that!?
How can you NOT want to read this after a review like that!?
Monday, November 10, 2008
Ahab's Wife
I have to admit that at first I just could not get into this book at all. I did not like the plot and actually contemplated not reading the book at all and just looking up information online on Sparknotes or something like that. However, once I got about 50 pages in, it started to get more interesting and then I was able to decide that I liked the book. I won't say that it is a favorite or even one that I would want to read again, but I was able to find it interesting and ultimately read through it all.
I grew to like the character of Una, and like you both have mentioned, I liked how she tells us that she started her story when she did so that she wouldn't get too stressed about knowing they were coming. Una had a difficult life, but I was able to empathize with her many times and liked the way she thought much of the time. I enjoyed the characters of Kit & Giles, though I was ultimately saddened by their fates. Neither handled the way their lives changed very well and they both dealt with it in very different ways than Una. She was able to take the challenging situations that life dealt her and grow stronger and more whole from them, rather than crumbling in the face of difficulty and choosing death or madness like Giles & Kit.
Though the cannibalism and intimate relationship alluded to between Kit & Giles was bothersome, I did not have the same aversion to it that Kelly mentions. I think that both situations make a lot of sense for their settings. Though I in no way condone it, I can see why many sailors would resort to physical relationships when out at sea for often years at a time. It was similar to ways that their women dealt with that loss of physical relationship with the "He's at home".
In regards to the cannibalism, though gruesome, without it Una, Kit & Giles would not have survived...and ultimately, because of this being in her past, Una was able to feel more of a kinship with Ahab and he with her. "It may well be that in the heart of man there is a goodness that is divine...but that is only half. The other hald is the Betrayer, the Liar, the Murderer, the Fornicator, the Cannibal, the Prince of Darkness. And I know, by thunder, that I have kinship there. It's that half of me that wants to be called brother...'Brother' I said. 'Do you call me brother, Una? You do not know me.' 'I have said what I have said...'"
Though she was not pleased that she had resorted to eating her fellow man, Una was able to see it for the necessity that it was and move on with her life. "What had happened was terrible beyond anything I could have imagined, and yet...and yet...I had lived." It bound her together with Kit & Giles in a way that kept them close, and also ultimately drove them apart. She mentions once ""I did not want to see in their eyes the reflection of what we had done together." But later she mentions this - "We three had become...a firm knot...Our loyalty to each other firmed us against the world of other men and nature...Having survived, our spirits demanded that which we granted to the other but could not grant ourselves...We would come to want, entangled again, from each other the love that we could not grant ourselves...that what I am, disgraced or blessed, came from what I was, goes to what I yet may be."
She did feel the need to share it with a few select people which seemed to give her some peace and forgiveness for the choices she had made. When she shared with Charlotte, the response was "I'm glad...whatever it took to bring you here and alive. I'm glad, Una Sparrow. And I will never tell." And when she shared with David "'I am a cannibal...in the strictest sense of the word.' 'How?' "At sea. In an open boat.' 'I forgive you'...'and I you'" She mentions soon after this "How many time, I asked myself, must I tell and be forgiven?...How was it the heart decided whom to tell?...Yet sometimes, as with Charlotte and David, my soul would have shriveled if I had not confessed. And to Ahab? Ah, he knew. He knew without having to be told."
I feel like this story gives more sensitivity and likeability to the character of Ahab. Though I have never read Moby Dick and really do not intend to ever read it, I feel like this side of the story was much more intriguing and well-rounded. After Ahab lost his leg..."how angrily he trod his world!...Anger, it seemed, was his only antidote to despair." Though he loved Una, she could not compete with his need to kill that whale and Una knew this desire would steal Ahab from her at least mentally, if not physically.
The night she stared at the stars and realized Ahab was gone, she says..."And yet I could not weep. This knowing - too quiet for tears...an inland sea...contained...a wide, quiet pool of unverifiable knowing." "In the dark of the moon, the heavens aglitter with stars, I gradually made my peace, lived through and beyond a slow grieving." Later after she knows for certain that Ahab is gone, she "wept into the sand for my Theseus, slain by the beast, because he could not find his way out of the labyrinth of revenge." I also liked how Ishmael became Una's last love and that they mentioned both of them writing their stories, but from different perspectives.
I very much enjoyed Una's time at the lighthouse with her relatives. It helped to know her history and how it shaped her for the future. I also loved her relationship with her mother and was saddened when she died. Her relatives made an impact on who Una became, though she was her own person, regardless of what others thought she should be. She mentions at the beginning, in regard to her aunt and mother "I later came to think that they both knew the foolishness of the world, to which Agatha remained unyielding while my mother, less certain that any view could be absolute, responded with pliant accommodation...I rather regretted that I did not myself have a sister who was a friend and with whom I could compare myself, the better to understand both my singularity and our commonality."
I also want to share a few quotes that I liked which did not necessarily fit into any of the topics that I mentioned above.
"People are always composed of a combination of the real and the abstract...we make each other up." (Kit)
"Is our life determined for us, or do we choose? Some of both. Some of both - the answer came clean and simple to my mind." (Una)
"I have ever feard the weathervane in me. Sometimes I point toward Independence, isolation. Sometimes I rotate - my back to Independence - and I need and want my friends, my family, with a force like a gale...I do not count myself fickle, for I have much loyalty in me, but I am changeable." (Una)
"Sometimes I like the public space...It's where the most private things can be said, confidentially." (Charlotte)
"I was not entirely pure, and to this day I feel some guilt and discomfort over that issue. But human beings are morally complex, women as well as men, and I must live with that." (Una)
"As a girl rebelling against my father's dogma, I had scoffed at Job for accepting God's consolation of a new wife and new children. But I, most Joblike, when Giles was dead, embraced Kit, and when Kit conveyed that he was not coming back, it was the messenger himself, Ahab, whom I immediately loved. If Mother and Liberty were gone, then here was Susan to unburden me of love. Not to be loved but to love lightened my load of grief and gave value and direction to my life." (Una)
"Where we choose to be, where we choose to be - we have that power to determine our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being." (Una)
I grew to like the character of Una, and like you both have mentioned, I liked how she tells us that she started her story when she did so that she wouldn't get too stressed about knowing they were coming. Una had a difficult life, but I was able to empathize with her many times and liked the way she thought much of the time. I enjoyed the characters of Kit & Giles, though I was ultimately saddened by their fates. Neither handled the way their lives changed very well and they both dealt with it in very different ways than Una. She was able to take the challenging situations that life dealt her and grow stronger and more whole from them, rather than crumbling in the face of difficulty and choosing death or madness like Giles & Kit.
Though the cannibalism and intimate relationship alluded to between Kit & Giles was bothersome, I did not have the same aversion to it that Kelly mentions. I think that both situations make a lot of sense for their settings. Though I in no way condone it, I can see why many sailors would resort to physical relationships when out at sea for often years at a time. It was similar to ways that their women dealt with that loss of physical relationship with the "He's at home".
In regards to the cannibalism, though gruesome, without it Una, Kit & Giles would not have survived...and ultimately, because of this being in her past, Una was able to feel more of a kinship with Ahab and he with her. "It may well be that in the heart of man there is a goodness that is divine...but that is only half. The other hald is the Betrayer, the Liar, the Murderer, the Fornicator, the Cannibal, the Prince of Darkness. And I know, by thunder, that I have kinship there. It's that half of me that wants to be called brother...'Brother' I said. 'Do you call me brother, Una? You do not know me.' 'I have said what I have said...'"
Though she was not pleased that she had resorted to eating her fellow man, Una was able to see it for the necessity that it was and move on with her life. "What had happened was terrible beyond anything I could have imagined, and yet...and yet...I had lived." It bound her together with Kit & Giles in a way that kept them close, and also ultimately drove them apart. She mentions once ""I did not want to see in their eyes the reflection of what we had done together." But later she mentions this - "We three had become...a firm knot...Our loyalty to each other firmed us against the world of other men and nature...Having survived, our spirits demanded that which we granted to the other but could not grant ourselves...We would come to want, entangled again, from each other the love that we could not grant ourselves...that what I am, disgraced or blessed, came from what I was, goes to what I yet may be."
She did feel the need to share it with a few select people which seemed to give her some peace and forgiveness for the choices she had made. When she shared with Charlotte, the response was "I'm glad...whatever it took to bring you here and alive. I'm glad, Una Sparrow. And I will never tell." And when she shared with David "'I am a cannibal...in the strictest sense of the word.' 'How?' "At sea. In an open boat.' 'I forgive you'...'and I you'" She mentions soon after this "How many time, I asked myself, must I tell and be forgiven?...How was it the heart decided whom to tell?...Yet sometimes, as with Charlotte and David, my soul would have shriveled if I had not confessed. And to Ahab? Ah, he knew. He knew without having to be told."
I feel like this story gives more sensitivity and likeability to the character of Ahab. Though I have never read Moby Dick and really do not intend to ever read it, I feel like this side of the story was much more intriguing and well-rounded. After Ahab lost his leg..."how angrily he trod his world!...Anger, it seemed, was his only antidote to despair." Though he loved Una, she could not compete with his need to kill that whale and Una knew this desire would steal Ahab from her at least mentally, if not physically.
The night she stared at the stars and realized Ahab was gone, she says..."And yet I could not weep. This knowing - too quiet for tears...an inland sea...contained...a wide, quiet pool of unverifiable knowing." "In the dark of the moon, the heavens aglitter with stars, I gradually made my peace, lived through and beyond a slow grieving." Later after she knows for certain that Ahab is gone, she "wept into the sand for my Theseus, slain by the beast, because he could not find his way out of the labyrinth of revenge." I also liked how Ishmael became Una's last love and that they mentioned both of them writing their stories, but from different perspectives.
I very much enjoyed Una's time at the lighthouse with her relatives. It helped to know her history and how it shaped her for the future. I also loved her relationship with her mother and was saddened when she died. Her relatives made an impact on who Una became, though she was her own person, regardless of what others thought she should be. She mentions at the beginning, in regard to her aunt and mother "I later came to think that they both knew the foolishness of the world, to which Agatha remained unyielding while my mother, less certain that any view could be absolute, responded with pliant accommodation...I rather regretted that I did not myself have a sister who was a friend and with whom I could compare myself, the better to understand both my singularity and our commonality."
I also want to share a few quotes that I liked which did not necessarily fit into any of the topics that I mentioned above.
"People are always composed of a combination of the real and the abstract...we make each other up." (Kit)
"Is our life determined for us, or do we choose? Some of both. Some of both - the answer came clean and simple to my mind." (Una)
"I have ever feard the weathervane in me. Sometimes I point toward Independence, isolation. Sometimes I rotate - my back to Independence - and I need and want my friends, my family, with a force like a gale...I do not count myself fickle, for I have much loyalty in me, but I am changeable." (Una)
"Sometimes I like the public space...It's where the most private things can be said, confidentially." (Charlotte)
"I was not entirely pure, and to this day I feel some guilt and discomfort over that issue. But human beings are morally complex, women as well as men, and I must live with that." (Una)
"As a girl rebelling against my father's dogma, I had scoffed at Job for accepting God's consolation of a new wife and new children. But I, most Joblike, when Giles was dead, embraced Kit, and when Kit conveyed that he was not coming back, it was the messenger himself, Ahab, whom I immediately loved. If Mother and Liberty were gone, then here was Susan to unburden me of love. Not to be loved but to love lightened my load of grief and gave value and direction to my life." (Una)
"Where we choose to be, where we choose to be - we have that power to determine our lives. We cannot reel time backward or forward, but we can take ourselves to the place that defines our being." (Una)
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Ahab's Wife
I flew through the first half of this book – absolutely loved it. When the story took what I call the “icky twist”, I started to lose interest, though I did finish with an overall good opinion. I realize that, in order to be the kind of person to attract and meld with Ahab, Una needed to have dealt with some tough things, but the whole cannibalism thing wasn’t my cup of tea, nor were the issues that Kit and Giles dealt with afterwards. I thought it was completely unnecessary to allude to an intimate encounter between the two of them. Like I said, icky! I was glad when Kit ran away and Una could finally be with someone who matched her perfectly.
I love all the descriptions of color – they’re so rich. “The fragile colors of dawn” In fact, all of the authors descriptions seem full.
The situation between Una and her father was terrible and most of her recollections of him were very sad, but one thing she talked about stuck with me and is something I’d like to remember for myself! The golden gloves – pretending to put on the golden rule “Do unto others as you” (one hand) “would have them to do” (second hand) “unto you” (wrist buttons) as gloves. “Whenever you do wrong, Una, the gloves come off. You must then say the verse again and put them on with new resolve.”
The author put so many allusions (cynical!) to the Bible, Christian beliefs and random religious thoughts throughout the story, I can’t hardly begin to mention them all, but here’s one that I thought memorable:
After Una first climbed the Lighthouse: “From that moment, my appreciation of the Lighthouse changed from reverence for its imposing presence, as we below moved around it, to affection. It admitted me to its interior. With the work of my own legs, it elevated me. I shared the splendor of its view. Knowing the structure from the inside, I loved it and counted it more friend and father.”
Another quote: “Home? she chuckled. “I have made my home wherever I am. … And I advise you to do the same.” Una takes this advice to heart and does find a way to make her home wherever she is. Similar to the quote/idea that you liked, Aunt Annette!
The story went back and forth in time quite a bit, but it all comes together into a coherent picture. I like that the author lets us know why Una tells her story in the order that she does – her most painful moments first. I like that pretty much all the ends are tied up – we get to find out what happens to Susan, David, Una’s neighbors; and we can see pretty much how Kit turns out. And I love how the book ends, bringing Una and Ishmael together; a neat tie to Melville’s story (which she does throughout the book, of course). I’ve never read Moby Dick, but this story almost makes me want to – not quite, though, because I even lost interest in the excerpts at the beginning!
I love all the descriptions of color – they’re so rich. “The fragile colors of dawn” In fact, all of the authors descriptions seem full.
The situation between Una and her father was terrible and most of her recollections of him were very sad, but one thing she talked about stuck with me and is something I’d like to remember for myself! The golden gloves – pretending to put on the golden rule “Do unto others as you” (one hand) “would have them to do” (second hand) “unto you” (wrist buttons) as gloves. “Whenever you do wrong, Una, the gloves come off. You must then say the verse again and put them on with new resolve.”
The author put so many allusions (cynical!) to the Bible, Christian beliefs and random religious thoughts throughout the story, I can’t hardly begin to mention them all, but here’s one that I thought memorable:
After Una first climbed the Lighthouse: “From that moment, my appreciation of the Lighthouse changed from reverence for its imposing presence, as we below moved around it, to affection. It admitted me to its interior. With the work of my own legs, it elevated me. I shared the splendor of its view. Knowing the structure from the inside, I loved it and counted it more friend and father.”
Another quote: “Home? she chuckled. “I have made my home wherever I am. … And I advise you to do the same.” Una takes this advice to heart and does find a way to make her home wherever she is. Similar to the quote/idea that you liked, Aunt Annette!
The story went back and forth in time quite a bit, but it all comes together into a coherent picture. I like that the author lets us know why Una tells her story in the order that she does – her most painful moments first. I like that pretty much all the ends are tied up – we get to find out what happens to Susan, David, Una’s neighbors; and we can see pretty much how Kit turns out. And I love how the book ends, bringing Una and Ishmael together; a neat tie to Melville’s story (which she does throughout the book, of course). I’ve never read Moby Dick, but this story almost makes me want to – not quite, though, because I even lost interest in the excerpts at the beginning!
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Annette's Review (from Saigon)
Hi Keri and Kelly. Here are my thoughts on the book. I finished it a few weeks ago (started it on the plane over hear) and I've decided to leave it in the hotel's "library" because its so big and heavy (and I need the space/weight for souvenir/gifts). so I need to do my review now, while I still have the book.
I loved the book and found it fascinating. I did think there were a few sections of the book that could have easily been trimmed (I found myself skimming those sections which was unusual for the book) but they were only occasional and didn't spoil the book for me.
By far my favorite sentence out of the whole book was when Una says "I live the life that is before me". I can so relate to that thought and plan to incorporate it into my "signature" for my email. And it says everything about how Una faced her life despite its ups and downs and unexpected turns.
I thought the book was very ambitious covering so much ground...literally kentucky to nantucket and figuatively: slavery to religions to whaling. The book could have run aground (using a nautical analogy) but it managed to "stay afloat" and mostly did so in an interesting and intriguing manner. Ultimately it was about the strong and the weak for me. those people who "live the life that is before them" and those who fight it or run from it or refuse to acknowledge it.
I found much of the author's writing to be wonderfully vivid and descriptive. Early on in the book I loved her description of the ice on the river (that Susan was crossing) when she says that "it seemd to me that Susan was walking on clouds in a black sky". Her descriptions of the lighthouse and its island were wonderful...I could almost smell the damp stone when she described it.
I liked her descriptions of nantucket. We've spent time on Cape Cod and nantucket today seems like a small isolated island out past Cape Cod occupied by summer people and "loners". It takes 2 hours to get to by ferry. And if Cape Cod seems laid back it seems that nantucket is on the edge of the earth. However. I realize that in the days of ships before trains and planes that the towns along the "edge of the earth"...the harbors were where it was all happening. And that Nantucket was an important port between Long Island and Boston. so its interesting to think of all the different churches, philsophies, and lecturers that inhabited and were debated in what today is a very sleepy town. However what is the same is that Nantucket people (as with much of Cape Cod) are fiercely independent...I can see where that came from.
I thought her description of the whale ship tragedy and resulting cannibalism and the further resulting "secrets" was really well handled. She covered the range of emotions and reactions. I liked that Una was practical about it and didn't let that tragedy make the remainder of her life a tragedy as it did Kit's.
And I liked the clever twist at the end...with her meeting and marrying "Ishmael"...and their writing each of their own books...this one and...of course...Moby Dick.
I know I haven't covered all of the book here...her relationship with Susan, her father, and her relationship with Ahab. but I'll let you two write first...and then maybe I will add some more.
One relationship and story line that I thought didn't add much to the book and perhaps bogged it down was her friendship with the woman in Boston, Margaret Fuller. And all the related story lines of her going to concord and running into Nathaniel Hawthorne, etc. Although somewhat interesting I thought it was a ltitle contrived and did not advance the true story very much.
Bottom line. I would have liked to have known Una...I admire her as a woman and respect her as a human being. It was nice to spend time with her.
I loved the book and found it fascinating. I did think there were a few sections of the book that could have easily been trimmed (I found myself skimming those sections which was unusual for the book) but they were only occasional and didn't spoil the book for me.
By far my favorite sentence out of the whole book was when Una says "I live the life that is before me". I can so relate to that thought and plan to incorporate it into my "signature" for my email. And it says everything about how Una faced her life despite its ups and downs and unexpected turns.
I thought the book was very ambitious covering so much ground...literally kentucky to nantucket and figuatively: slavery to religions to whaling. The book could have run aground (using a nautical analogy) but it managed to "stay afloat" and mostly did so in an interesting and intriguing manner. Ultimately it was about the strong and the weak for me. those people who "live the life that is before them" and those who fight it or run from it or refuse to acknowledge it.
I found much of the author's writing to be wonderfully vivid and descriptive. Early on in the book I loved her description of the ice on the river (that Susan was crossing) when she says that "it seemd to me that Susan was walking on clouds in a black sky". Her descriptions of the lighthouse and its island were wonderful...I could almost smell the damp stone when she described it.
I liked her descriptions of nantucket. We've spent time on Cape Cod and nantucket today seems like a small isolated island out past Cape Cod occupied by summer people and "loners". It takes 2 hours to get to by ferry. And if Cape Cod seems laid back it seems that nantucket is on the edge of the earth. However. I realize that in the days of ships before trains and planes that the towns along the "edge of the earth"...the harbors were where it was all happening. And that Nantucket was an important port between Long Island and Boston. so its interesting to think of all the different churches, philsophies, and lecturers that inhabited and were debated in what today is a very sleepy town. However what is the same is that Nantucket people (as with much of Cape Cod) are fiercely independent...I can see where that came from.
I thought her description of the whale ship tragedy and resulting cannibalism and the further resulting "secrets" was really well handled. She covered the range of emotions and reactions. I liked that Una was practical about it and didn't let that tragedy make the remainder of her life a tragedy as it did Kit's.
And I liked the clever twist at the end...with her meeting and marrying "Ishmael"...and their writing each of their own books...this one and...of course...Moby Dick.
I know I haven't covered all of the book here...her relationship with Susan, her father, and her relationship with Ahab. but I'll let you two write first...and then maybe I will add some more.
One relationship and story line that I thought didn't add much to the book and perhaps bogged it down was her friendship with the woman in Boston, Margaret Fuller. And all the related story lines of her going to concord and running into Nathaniel Hawthorne, etc. Although somewhat interesting I thought it was a ltitle contrived and did not advance the true story very much.
Bottom line. I would have liked to have known Una...I admire her as a woman and respect her as a human being. It was nice to spend time with her.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The Next Book is....
Ahab's Wife...a big fat book just perfect for my long plane rides to and from vietnam!
Monday, September 15, 2008
A few more thoughts
keri your comments gave me more to think about.
I had to think whether I identified with Rosemary in some way. I decided that that at her age I also was very confused about my place in the world and in particular how I fit in with the opposite sex, I think I often ignored my own feelings because they scared me a little bit. However, I never felt as isolated as she did. And although I always considered myself as being self confident and independent I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the guts to go to New York knowing no one and without a plan (I have always been a planner).
I also liked your quotes 2 and 4 There was another one I liked "books aren't lumps of paper, but minds on shelves". When she's describing Walter Geist at first she says "From the first it was his eyes. His eyes could not be caught". I always saw him that way through the rest of the book. I thought her physical descriptions of people were very vivid.
I agree that even though the ending didn't really tell you where everyone was going to end up (except poor Walter) I think that Rosemary learned from her experiences in a positive way and probably ending up living an interesting more informed life in NY...
Most interesting character for me: Rosemary but maybe that's not fair because we know the most about Rosemary...so other than Rosemary... I think it would be Pearl or Oscar (even though I don't like his character in the end, he was an enigma...I kept thinking we'd know the real Oscar...but then again maybe we did...just didn't like what we knew.
I'd have lunch with Pearl.
I'd want to throw a book at....Oscar...in that scene where he reacted so horribly to Rosemary's awkward attempt to kiss him...honestly you'd think she had the plague or something. He was a grown man..he could have handled that so much better...in that moment he was a self-centered immature idiot.
Keri...I liked your comments about Walter...I do think his desires and insecurities blinded him to what was right and wrong (for either himself or others around him). As I said before...I don't think it was an accident that the author had his physical blindness worsening as his behavior became more blind to human decency.
I had to think whether I identified with Rosemary in some way. I decided that that at her age I also was very confused about my place in the world and in particular how I fit in with the opposite sex, I think I often ignored my own feelings because they scared me a little bit. However, I never felt as isolated as she did. And although I always considered myself as being self confident and independent I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had the guts to go to New York knowing no one and without a plan (I have always been a planner).
I also liked your quotes 2 and 4 There was another one I liked "books aren't lumps of paper, but minds on shelves". When she's describing Walter Geist at first she says "From the first it was his eyes. His eyes could not be caught". I always saw him that way through the rest of the book. I thought her physical descriptions of people were very vivid.
I agree that even though the ending didn't really tell you where everyone was going to end up (except poor Walter) I think that Rosemary learned from her experiences in a positive way and probably ending up living an interesting more informed life in NY...
Most interesting character for me: Rosemary but maybe that's not fair because we know the most about Rosemary...so other than Rosemary... I think it would be Pearl or Oscar (even though I don't like his character in the end, he was an enigma...I kept thinking we'd know the real Oscar...but then again maybe we did...just didn't like what we knew.
I'd have lunch with Pearl.
I'd want to throw a book at....Oscar...in that scene where he reacted so horribly to Rosemary's awkward attempt to kiss him...honestly you'd think she had the plague or something. He was a grown man..he could have handled that so much better...in that moment he was a self-centered immature idiot.
Keri...I liked your comments about Walter...I do think his desires and insecurities blinded him to what was right and wrong (for either himself or others around him). As I said before...I don't think it was an accident that the author had his physical blindness worsening as his behavior became more blind to human decency.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Keri's thoughts
There were a lot of things that made me think while reading this book. I found it easy to identify with Rosemary and often felt like I could understand the things she felt and said. One thing in particular was when she mentioned she "loved to be called 'dear girl'"...something Mr. Mitchell called her. I too love to be called by terms of endearment, and have a few patrons in the library who call me sweetie or dear.
I liked the way the author wrote and had many things I wanted to underline, but used sticky notes instead since it wasn't my book (next time I'll buy the book and make notes in it). Here are a few of my favorite passages.
1 - "...my anonymity was at times a raw joy in my chest, freedom at its most literal, while at others, a source of paralyzing fear. I didn't know then that this was how deep emotion most often comes, from opposite directions and at once, when you are least aware and farthest from yourself."
2 - "Our business is to find homes for books with the hope that they will be loved as we have loved them. My heart is broken every day I make a sale; then renewed again by the arrival of an unexpected replacement. I keep learning to love again...my relationship to books remains mysterious to me, but I know from my own collection that ownership is the most intimate tie we can have to objects."
3 - "I wasn't looking for consolation. I wanted most of all to feel. To experience loss and restoration together, at once, like snow appearing to counter never having seen it before."
4 - "I knew books to be objects that loved to cluster and form disordered piles, but here books seemed robbed of their zany capacity to fall about, to conspire. In the library, books behaved themselves."
5 - "...I thought that what Lillian and Pearl had in common, apart from me, was their unimaginable experiences: experiences painful enough that, when seen in another's face, they amounted to real recognition."
Curiosity was a theme that seemed to reoccur and could be applied to all the main characters. Rosemary was curious about all the people around her - wondering what made Lillian so sad, whether or not Oscar would like her, how George Pike made his calculations for the book prices, etc. In regards to Geist, she mentions "It wasn't compassion on my part that made him so interesting to me. It was curiosity. My imagination was always overactive, and I made him a figure of significance in the fairy tale I was inventing, in the one I was living. Perhaps, as well, I just couldn't reckon with his humanity." She later mentions, while visiting Peabody's Wunderkammern, "I felt a deep disquiet, yet I was fascinated, understanding fully and for the first time how much a part of curiosity is uneasiness." This quote really speaks to her feelings toward Geist - he always makes her uneasy, yet he piques her curiosity repeatedly. But by the end of the book, once Rosemary has realized all of Geist's motives and seen his humanity, he is no longer a curiosity. It was "the end of guessing at clues, of puzzling at Geist's motives and actions. He'd become too real, and had broken out of the cabinet I'd kept him in. He was a man, after all, and not a curiosity. He had demands. He wouldn't be explained away or...investigated out of his humaness."
I thought the book was sad, but in a way ended happily enough. I do wonder what happened to Oscar and why he disappeared so completely. It makes you wonder if anything he said about himself to anyone was ever true. I liked the character of Pearl and wanted to have a picture of her so that I could see what she would look like. She was a good influence on Rosemary and a good friend. I'd like to think that her surgery went well and she lived happily ever after with Mario...remaining friends with Rosemary of course. :)
To answer Aunt Annette's questions:
1 - I found the character of Melville most interesting. Though he wasn't technically a character, his name and history and writings were a constant presence in the book. I've never read any of his works and didn't know much about him, so I found it very interesting to learn more. I particularly found interesting his letters to Hawthorne. They were intensely passionate and could hint at more than friendship, though people wrote and spoke more passionately about friends back then, so perhaps not. I marked one part of his letter, a postscript actually that really stuck with me. "I should have a paper-mill established at one end of the house, and so have an endless riband of foolscap rolling in upon my desk; and upon that endless riband I should write a thousand - a million - billion thoughts, all under the form of a letter to you. The divine magnet is upon you, and my magnet responds. Which is the biggest? A foolish question - they are One." It makes me kind of sad that people don't speak like that anymore...but then again I'm not sure exactly how I'd respond to someone who wrote something like that to me...perhaps I'd think them a bit insane, as they thought of Melville?
2 - I would most like to have lunch with either Pearl or Mr. Mitchell. I really enjoyed both characters and their fondness for Rosemary.
3 - I never really wanted to throw anything at any of the characters, but I found several of them unsettling. George Pike was a bit irritating in his holier-than-thou, overseeing-everything yet truly knowing nothing little stage. He was lost in his own little world of pricing, never seeing the people who worked for him for what they were. Oscar was intriguing at first, but ultimately lost in his own world as well. He was curious about everything and everyone around him, so long as he didn't have to be close to them. He was very closed off from people, yet drew them in with his interest and curiosity. Ultimately, I thought he could belong anywhere, because he had no true meaning to anyone. A little bit like what Lillian said to Rosemary about Borges "We are like those things. No one knows we exist, except a few people. And if we disappear, there is no Borges to make a little story of us, to remember us." Except that he did have meaning to Rosemary and she probably would remember him...but she never really knew him. And of course, Walter Geist was not likeable at all to me. He was sad, lonely and though I'm sure his being an albino made some people act a certain way he was more than capable of acting in a way that could help people see past it. He was desperate to do something to help his fate, and it kept him from seeing how wrong he was...but it was very like what the ambrotype said about Melville. "It was intended to illustrate the principal of remorse, and to demonstrate that there is, very often, less real virtue in moral respectability than in accidental crime. Some men save their conventional reputation by living up to a decent average of legalized vice, always simmering up to that point but never boiling over; while some are entirely virtuous and truthful all their life, until some sudden and uncontrollable impulse carries them at one bound over the height, and they perish eternally."
I liked the way the author wrote and had many things I wanted to underline, but used sticky notes instead since it wasn't my book (next time I'll buy the book and make notes in it). Here are a few of my favorite passages.
1 - "...my anonymity was at times a raw joy in my chest, freedom at its most literal, while at others, a source of paralyzing fear. I didn't know then that this was how deep emotion most often comes, from opposite directions and at once, when you are least aware and farthest from yourself."
2 - "Our business is to find homes for books with the hope that they will be loved as we have loved them. My heart is broken every day I make a sale; then renewed again by the arrival of an unexpected replacement. I keep learning to love again...my relationship to books remains mysterious to me, but I know from my own collection that ownership is the most intimate tie we can have to objects."
3 - "I wasn't looking for consolation. I wanted most of all to feel. To experience loss and restoration together, at once, like snow appearing to counter never having seen it before."
4 - "I knew books to be objects that loved to cluster and form disordered piles, but here books seemed robbed of their zany capacity to fall about, to conspire. In the library, books behaved themselves."
5 - "...I thought that what Lillian and Pearl had in common, apart from me, was their unimaginable experiences: experiences painful enough that, when seen in another's face, they amounted to real recognition."
Curiosity was a theme that seemed to reoccur and could be applied to all the main characters. Rosemary was curious about all the people around her - wondering what made Lillian so sad, whether or not Oscar would like her, how George Pike made his calculations for the book prices, etc. In regards to Geist, she mentions "It wasn't compassion on my part that made him so interesting to me. It was curiosity. My imagination was always overactive, and I made him a figure of significance in the fairy tale I was inventing, in the one I was living. Perhaps, as well, I just couldn't reckon with his humanity." She later mentions, while visiting Peabody's Wunderkammern, "I felt a deep disquiet, yet I was fascinated, understanding fully and for the first time how much a part of curiosity is uneasiness." This quote really speaks to her feelings toward Geist - he always makes her uneasy, yet he piques her curiosity repeatedly. But by the end of the book, once Rosemary has realized all of Geist's motives and seen his humanity, he is no longer a curiosity. It was "the end of guessing at clues, of puzzling at Geist's motives and actions. He'd become too real, and had broken out of the cabinet I'd kept him in. He was a man, after all, and not a curiosity. He had demands. He wouldn't be explained away or...investigated out of his humaness."
I thought the book was sad, but in a way ended happily enough. I do wonder what happened to Oscar and why he disappeared so completely. It makes you wonder if anything he said about himself to anyone was ever true. I liked the character of Pearl and wanted to have a picture of her so that I could see what she would look like. She was a good influence on Rosemary and a good friend. I'd like to think that her surgery went well and she lived happily ever after with Mario...remaining friends with Rosemary of course. :)
To answer Aunt Annette's questions:
1 - I found the character of Melville most interesting. Though he wasn't technically a character, his name and history and writings were a constant presence in the book. I've never read any of his works and didn't know much about him, so I found it very interesting to learn more. I particularly found interesting his letters to Hawthorne. They were intensely passionate and could hint at more than friendship, though people wrote and spoke more passionately about friends back then, so perhaps not. I marked one part of his letter, a postscript actually that really stuck with me. "I should have a paper-mill established at one end of the house, and so have an endless riband of foolscap rolling in upon my desk; and upon that endless riband I should write a thousand - a million - billion thoughts, all under the form of a letter to you. The divine magnet is upon you, and my magnet responds. Which is the biggest? A foolish question - they are One." It makes me kind of sad that people don't speak like that anymore...but then again I'm not sure exactly how I'd respond to someone who wrote something like that to me...perhaps I'd think them a bit insane, as they thought of Melville?
2 - I would most like to have lunch with either Pearl or Mr. Mitchell. I really enjoyed both characters and their fondness for Rosemary.
3 - I never really wanted to throw anything at any of the characters, but I found several of them unsettling. George Pike was a bit irritating in his holier-than-thou, overseeing-everything yet truly knowing nothing little stage. He was lost in his own little world of pricing, never seeing the people who worked for him for what they were. Oscar was intriguing at first, but ultimately lost in his own world as well. He was curious about everything and everyone around him, so long as he didn't have to be close to them. He was very closed off from people, yet drew them in with his interest and curiosity. Ultimately, I thought he could belong anywhere, because he had no true meaning to anyone. A little bit like what Lillian said to Rosemary about Borges "We are like those things. No one knows we exist, except a few people. And if we disappear, there is no Borges to make a little story of us, to remember us." Except that he did have meaning to Rosemary and she probably would remember him...but she never really knew him. And of course, Walter Geist was not likeable at all to me. He was sad, lonely and though I'm sure his being an albino made some people act a certain way he was more than capable of acting in a way that could help people see past it. He was desperate to do something to help his fate, and it kept him from seeing how wrong he was...but it was very like what the ambrotype said about Melville. "It was intended to illustrate the principal of remorse, and to demonstrate that there is, very often, less real virtue in moral respectability than in accidental crime. Some men save their conventional reputation by living up to a decent average of legalized vice, always simmering up to that point but never boiling over; while some are entirely virtuous and truthful all their life, until some sudden and uncontrollable impulse carries them at one bound over the height, and they perish eternally."
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Annette Here!
I'm off for 10 days to a wedding in Beverly Hills and then damage control in St. Petersburg on the house permits. so thought I'd start my "review" now and we can discuss things when i get back (on the 15th). I'll have my laptop but probably not consistent internet access.
I found the book odd but thought provoking. I really loved her style of writing. I thought it was a good mix of narration and of dialog. The main characters were well described. I liked her way with words like when she was describing Robert Mitchell and said "he had the complexion of a man who didn't manage his blood pressure".
I loved the physical description of the bookstore, I wanted to go there. I guess its losely based on the famous Strand bookstore in NYC...so next time I'm in Manhattan...I'm going there!
Regarding the story...I found it tense and sad in many respects. I read an interview with the author where she said that she wanted to write a fable or a fairy tale (like the German grim ones). And I think it was in many ways. You had this innocent and well meaning young girl enter a den of odd folk with all sorts of their own demons. And through her well meaning intentions she upsets more than one apple cart and at the same time comes to a better idea of herself and how she fits in the world.
Like Kelly I originally thought "just how naive can this girl be". But I've thought about that. The story takes place in NYC probably in the early 80s which in some ways is light years ago...I mean just think...there wasn't even internet then! I came around a little earlier...about 10 years before and I was never that naive...but frankly I had several girlfriends who were. And had they been raised on the bottom of the world in Tasmania...my guess is they could have easily been Rosemary. On top of that, her world was really small...few friends...just her and her mom and Chaps.
I felt both sad for and repulsed by Walter Geist and I'm sorry that Rosemary didn't have the maturity and self-awareness to deal with him better. But I think he was basically headed to the bad end and it was just a case of what (or who) would get him. He was a man who's body was failing him and who was so warped by what society had done to him that he couldn't see the way to go anymore. It was sad and frustrating to watch him. I don't think it was an accident that as his physical blindness increased that he became increasingly blind to what was right and wrong and socially acceptable. I think that author must have done this deliberately.
Now the character of Oscar. I had a similar reactions as did Rosemary. i interesting found him interesting and appealing (not romantically but humanly). But as we learn more and more about his inability to relate to other human beings and his obsessions, he became less and less likable. An interesting conundrum though...he wanted the manuscript for apparently "right reasons"...higher ideals...not for money or to impress a girl...and yet it didn't make him a good person, did it?
One of the things that I don't understand or perhaps like is how Oscar just disappears...first, how is that possible...and why? Does anyone have an idea??? Not that anyone is worse off for him being gone...especially Rosemary. What do you think?
I liked Pearl...did you? I thought she was oddly (given his/her life story) often a voice of reality and reason when faced with some of the oddities of the Arcade.
I found the book odd but thought provoking. I really loved her style of writing. I thought it was a good mix of narration and of dialog. The main characters were well described. I liked her way with words like when she was describing Robert Mitchell and said "he had the complexion of a man who didn't manage his blood pressure".
I loved the physical description of the bookstore, I wanted to go there. I guess its losely based on the famous Strand bookstore in NYC...so next time I'm in Manhattan...I'm going there!
Regarding the story...I found it tense and sad in many respects. I read an interview with the author where she said that she wanted to write a fable or a fairy tale (like the German grim ones). And I think it was in many ways. You had this innocent and well meaning young girl enter a den of odd folk with all sorts of their own demons. And through her well meaning intentions she upsets more than one apple cart and at the same time comes to a better idea of herself and how she fits in the world.
Like Kelly I originally thought "just how naive can this girl be". But I've thought about that. The story takes place in NYC probably in the early 80s which in some ways is light years ago...I mean just think...there wasn't even internet then! I came around a little earlier...about 10 years before and I was never that naive...but frankly I had several girlfriends who were. And had they been raised on the bottom of the world in Tasmania...my guess is they could have easily been Rosemary. On top of that, her world was really small...few friends...just her and her mom and Chaps.
I felt both sad for and repulsed by Walter Geist and I'm sorry that Rosemary didn't have the maturity and self-awareness to deal with him better. But I think he was basically headed to the bad end and it was just a case of what (or who) would get him. He was a man who's body was failing him and who was so warped by what society had done to him that he couldn't see the way to go anymore. It was sad and frustrating to watch him. I don't think it was an accident that as his physical blindness increased that he became increasingly blind to what was right and wrong and socially acceptable. I think that author must have done this deliberately.
Now the character of Oscar. I had a similar reactions as did Rosemary. i interesting found him interesting and appealing (not romantically but humanly). But as we learn more and more about his inability to relate to other human beings and his obsessions, he became less and less likable. An interesting conundrum though...he wanted the manuscript for apparently "right reasons"...higher ideals...not for money or to impress a girl...and yet it didn't make him a good person, did it?
One of the things that I don't understand or perhaps like is how Oscar just disappears...first, how is that possible...and why? Does anyone have an idea??? Not that anyone is worse off for him being gone...especially Rosemary. What do you think?
I liked Pearl...did you? I thought she was oddly (given his/her life story) often a voice of reality and reason when faced with some of the oddities of the Arcade.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Annette Weighs In - kind of
I only have a few minutes so I will post my review in a few days. But for now I had some thoughts/questions I thought we could "discuss". Maybe you have a few, too!
Of the characters in the bookstore (not counting Rosemary) who did you think was:
a) the most interesting
b) the one you'd most like to have lunch with
c) the one you'd most like to throw the book at
What do you think happened to Oscar and why? Why do you think the author doesn't tell us?
Of the characters in the bookstore (not counting Rosemary) who did you think was:
a) the most interesting
b) the one you'd most like to have lunch with
c) the one you'd most like to throw the book at
What do you think happened to Oscar and why? Why do you think the author doesn't tell us?
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Secret of Lost Things - as seen through the eyes of Kelly
Okay, so this is my first ever opinion for my first ever book club. Be prepared for many inane and meaningless comments (also be prepared for spoilers, as I'm not holding back)! First, a little background info on me: I started college as an English major. After a week or so of one class on American literature during which I read a completely pointless poem about a fly, I decided that English wasn't the route I was meant to go and switched majors pronto. If English majors are supposed to find all sorts of hidden meaning and layers of importance in a poem about a fly, that's definitely not my cup of tea! All that to say, don't expect greatness from my opinion on these books! Just honesty!
I finished "The Secret of Lost Things" in one day, off and on for about a total of 3 hours, I'd guess. It was quite intriguing and easily accomplished between loads of laundry and dishes (you may wonder what my kids did in the meantime - I confess there was a lot of TV going on. In the future, I shall confine my book club readings to naptimes and after bedtime only!).
I found the main character hard to identify with - her obession with her mother was weird (referring to herself as a "small cadaver" when her mom wasn't around), she was completely idiotic about her crush on Oscar (how many times does someone have to warn her that he's not attracted to women!?), and her acceptance of all these weird, often obscene people is odd (I would have thought she'd find them distasteful to her more "proper" upbringing). And I definitely couldn't understand why she didn't get where Walter was coming from - again, how many times did people have to blankly say that he was interested in her before she believed it? I personally wish she'd dropped her obsession with Oscar and formed a real relationship with Walter before he got desperate, bought into the fraud, and told her he'd pay her to be with him. At that point he was too far gone to be attractive, but before then? Who knows?
The ending is pretty good - most stuff wrapped up neatly, though the stupid girl is still wondering about Oscar. I wish we could have found out how things went with Pearl and Mario post-surgery... a few times I got a sense of foreboding, like maybe things wouldn't work out for them afterwards? Since the auther didn't say either way, I choose to believe they're together. I just really like a love story that ends happily, and, since the rest of the book didn't oblige, I'm taking it where I can get it!
I definitely wouldn't go around telling all my friends to read this. It's depressing, yucky in some spots, and ends just so-so. The references to other works of literature are neat, but not enough to make me want to read it again... really, not even enough to make me want to read more from this author.
So, that's my first book review (since elementary school, that is)! Hope I didn't do too badly. Can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks.
I finished "The Secret of Lost Things" in one day, off and on for about a total of 3 hours, I'd guess. It was quite intriguing and easily accomplished between loads of laundry and dishes (you may wonder what my kids did in the meantime - I confess there was a lot of TV going on. In the future, I shall confine my book club readings to naptimes and after bedtime only!).
I found the main character hard to identify with - her obession with her mother was weird (referring to herself as a "small cadaver" when her mom wasn't around), she was completely idiotic about her crush on Oscar (how many times does someone have to warn her that he's not attracted to women!?), and her acceptance of all these weird, often obscene people is odd (I would have thought she'd find them distasteful to her more "proper" upbringing). And I definitely couldn't understand why she didn't get where Walter was coming from - again, how many times did people have to blankly say that he was interested in her before she believed it? I personally wish she'd dropped her obsession with Oscar and formed a real relationship with Walter before he got desperate, bought into the fraud, and told her he'd pay her to be with him. At that point he was too far gone to be attractive, but before then? Who knows?
The ending is pretty good - most stuff wrapped up neatly, though the stupid girl is still wondering about Oscar. I wish we could have found out how things went with Pearl and Mario post-surgery... a few times I got a sense of foreboding, like maybe things wouldn't work out for them afterwards? Since the auther didn't say either way, I choose to believe they're together. I just really like a love story that ends happily, and, since the rest of the book didn't oblige, I'm taking it where I can get it!
I definitely wouldn't go around telling all my friends to read this. It's depressing, yucky in some spots, and ends just so-so. The references to other works of literature are neat, but not enough to make me want to read it again... really, not even enough to make me want to read more from this author.
So, that's my first book review (since elementary school, that is)! Hope I didn't do too badly. Can't wait to hear what everyone else thinks.
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