Kim's comments (member since Jul 08, 2008)

Kim's comments from the Endicott Mythic Fiction group.

Some of you may have noticed I'm not one of the moderators anymore, or not. Likely not, as I haven't been very present of late. I just wanted to let you know I've just been very busy and asked Odette to take me off. Odette and Baobhan are doing such a wonderful job and I thank them for making (thanks Odette) and keeping this site running (thanks to both of you)! I'll check in when I can join in a read just like the rest of you. Looks like we have some great reads coming up too!

No apologies necessary, Christopher, you are just telling a story and I am responsible for my emotional reactions. And that you made me feel something is good. If I felt nothing, I wouldn't be writing you! It just infused me with this sort of feeling of hopelessness, in spite of your best intentions. Perhaps it is because his environment is portrayed as being so bleak and the adults around him so damaged. (Although, I liked the book store owner and found myself wanting to know a bit more about him and how his story might intertwine with Adams later.)

I also saw Adam as a writer and I'm surprised you didn't see that right away! My reasoning was his love of words and how they gave him something to hang onto. Maybe this is your own love of words coming through through him?

Thanks for covering the whole sexuality/intimacy question so thoroughly. I do think that there is too much black and white and labeling of people's sexuality. What you said was basically my conclusion, that he was trying to build another world for himself and get the love he needed.

I'll be looking to see what else comes out of your Pandora's Box in the future. Thanks!

Hi Christopher: First, thank you so much for answering so thoroughly and being so open about your process! Reading about how you develop your characters (the way you respond to the questions makes me feel they are very real to you) and the environment they play out their roles in has been fascinating. I was particularly interested that you had a different ending for this book. I definitely sensed that in reading it. That Adam didn't really want to be back in his life but that he just kind of accepted it more as a personal responsibility. I wanted more from him than that, but this actually probably makes him more human, anyway it fit his character. He didn't seem to get an epiphany from his experiences, except that somebody could care for him and that gave him some worth. (Actually, he got that from both Gracie and Jamie.)

That leads me to ask about the more controversial relationship he had with Jamie. I've read a lot of reviews on your book about the "homosexual" relationship he had with Jamie and I was wondering if that is your take on it. It didn't strike me necessarily as being about sex (much less so than his relationship with Gracie) as much it was about intimacy. (Odette, I'm borrowing a bit on our private discussion, hope you don't mind. I give you credit for that word which so well described what I was framing.) Adam seemed to be looking for some sort of physical love that he wasn't getting from his family and Jamie needed somehow to feed on the warmth of the life of Adam, as a ghost needing that spark of life. Even the long kiss seemed more to be about that. So, was it your intention to explore it as a boy loving a boy in a sexual way or was it more or both? No condemnation implied, I thought it seemed sort of a natural consequence of events in the book and it didn't seem out of context. Adam seemed very needy, but given his environment it made sense.

I will say the book did make me very sad, but then your title is "One for Sorrow" isn't it?

Hmmm...believe there are things we can't explain, how 'bout that? And enjoy imagining what those things are. ;0) Also love Brian Froud's fairies. They are supposed to be mischievous, as you say. And there are good and bad ones, I believe.

Are you back now, Reem?

Welcome Lisarose, glad you found us! Haven't read the books you've listed, but if they're on the list, I'm sure we'll get to them. This group is really growing from Odette's little seed!

I think I saw some elves this morning, just around the chimney and a few playing along the canal. Be on the look out and enjoy your holidays! Peace, Kim

I'm in too. Ordered it and currently waiting. Thanks Christopher! Looking forward to the discussion!

Waterhouse is one of my favorites, Baobhan, great choice! He has many images linked to water. Bet we could come up with more if we looked. The book is rife with imagery.

Glad you like it, Claire. I'll see if I can't do more of that in the future! At any rate, this one spoke to me right away since I was in the midst of this book.

Oh, forgot to say that in between reading this one I went to an exhibit of Isaac and Jozef Israels and I found a postcard that really suited the book as a bookmark. It is of Jozef's "Na de Storm" ("After the Storm")Here's a version of it: http://www.cultuurwijzer.nl/sites/cultuu...

Oddly enough this is a different version than the one I saw. The one I saw was simpler, with the woman sitting at the door and a wicker crib behind her with a sleeping babe. He must have done these two versions at the same time. It's a pity I can't find it, because the one I saw make me think of Clodaugh at the cabin but also the last scene with her son. If I find it in the meantime, I'll post again.

Though this was well written, I found this book to be very dark, something I would have avoided given our current shorter daylight hours. Agreed, Kay and Rora, I also loved the selkie theme and regretted that there wasn't even more of that somehow. This book reminded me a lot of Hardy's "Tess of the D'Ubervilles". Same sort of tragic life set in a beautiful landscape.

I agree with Claire that the characters seemed to be very full. I could believe them for the most part. Much better than Mortal Love. The contrast of the interior life versus the wild natural life was quite good too.

The incest story I didn't completely believe because I would have thought her father would have pieced things together, but maybe not.

I liked how the author created a sort of still life with the baubles and the sealskin dress. I could picture them in my mind pretty well. They gave the story a lot of focus as well as the house descriptions. All in all, well written, but it did make me want to go out and get a breath of fresh air, bit stifling.

Thanks to Hilary and Baobhan for the selkie references. I hadn't heard of the film "The Secret of Roan Inish". I'll have to have a look for that.

Ok, I'm not gonna read any more comments here till I finish, but I wanted to say I'm pretty far into it now. So far, I'm finding it a bit drawn out and depressing though some of the imagery is quite nice. Haven't gotten to the part about incest but did read a bit about the selkie thing. Kinda hoping it goes towards the mythological more than the pathological soon.

Just got this and started it.

I'm there. Just ordered it today.

Yes, Terri, I think that's what bothered me most about it...you kind of think you're going somewhere and then you're not. If the author just took one part and followed it through I would have felt more satisfied. Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Yes, I think you hit upon it, Kay. It seems the main character was the muse, but she wasn't solid enough for all the other characters to mold themselves to. It did seem the author had a strong interest in Art Brut and that grabbed my interest a bit. So many things about this book COULD have worked. Too bad it fizzled.

Rora, thanks for the definition!

Yes, well, upon reflection I think 6 stars was a little much. I was overly optimistic because this was our second read and I wanted to make myself like it. There were some interesting ideas, just didn't feel they were the author's original one's. Better luck next pick!

Sorry, I'm tired tonite, Terri, what is multiple POV?

Welcome Vivian! I'm sure you'll find some interesting reads here.

Couldn't get this through Amazon. I'll check elsewhere but if I can't find it, I might sit this one out.