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?
Thursday, August 28, 2008
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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