mara's comments (member since Feb 06, 2008)

mara's comments from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die group.

Shew! I am glad I'm not the only one who really didn' like the book and found the father ridiculously "monolithic" and stereotyped.

But, Michelle, I like your take too. The only part I actually did like were the details about life in the Congo and the native peoples. That was absorbing, and yes I also reflected often on all the details we take for granted and on how context is everything.

I liked reading about, for instance, how the Congolese (sp?) wore the same items of clothes all the time, not because I thought it was funny, but because it rattled by mind a little - oh! Well I guess we can see the function of clothes differently - not to cover the body as if it's shameful but as decoration, a part of identity, a second skin.

I thought Orleanna was really insightful too in that argument about the body not being a temple so much as a tool for use that would surely get worn out so you have to take life's knocks as they come.

It really was interesting...you know aside from the characters, plot, worn out cliched conflicts, and all that haha

But, on the other hand, maybe these things seem so worn out and cloched and un nuanced because they arent' as fresh as they may have been in the author's experience. Some of the elements I found most ridiculous (the relationship between Orleanna and Father) are from another time. Maybe the situation isn't so unrealistic. I have a random memory of a classmate in college telling a story about her ex husband punching her because she cooked a steak wrong. Things happen like that. Context - again. If you live in a time and society in which it is the norm to marry for practical reasons (someone to cook the supper, clean up after you) and not out of devotion, and if you believe that a woman is equal in intelligence and behavior to a child, and if you are egotistical enough then yes a Nathan Price doesn't seem all that ridiculous and overdrawn.

The Swarm has it mwahahaah

Hi, everyone, sorry for the late posting. I am half way though this one and should finish soon. Starting to get really into the story and characters now. I remember when this one was super popular. Now, finally, I find out what all the fuss is about.

What are everyone's thoughts?

WINTER READING SCHEDULE

December - Everything the Rises Must Converge - Flannery O'Conner

January - July's People - Nadine Gordimer

We are tied for February. I put the winners up in the poll up to run from until the 7th of November so that latecomers can vote and break the tie

Nooooo!!!! I really want to read The Swarm. That book looks AWESOME. If anyone hasn;t voted please do within the next 8 hours. I'm closing the polls when I wake up tomorrow :-( ONE vote, ONE!

Just a note about the winter choices. Everything That Rises Must Converge is a set of short stories. If it wins I'm not sure how we'll approach that. We've always done thigns kind of loose though. So I think we will end up just letting people talk abotu whichever story they want to instead of having some schedule for the stories. I think that will be fine. But I wanted to put that out there in case the fact that it isn't a novel bothered anyone. We haven't had to deal with this situation before. As always suggestions are welcome.

ha! I have to say Eliza's first comment is the best. Made me laugh.

Toilet scene - definitely the most disgusting stomachach-wrenching thing I have ever read or seen.

The differing voices startled me as well. I don't think I realized they were different until the third or fourth chapter. How did you all do with figuring out who was speaking?

And is there one character everyone found more compelling than the others? Or were they more or less interchangeable? If they were why did Welsh choose this style?

Polls for winter season have been posted. Vote by November 1!

okey doke

Kristi, I agree. If Dorothea met Ladislaw first she wouldn't have the need for him. They connected right around the time she started having trouble with Casaubon

we send out an email?

I agree with Emma about the reality of the debt situations. Some things never change.

The railroad issue mentioned upthread is interesting. The characters are so absorbing that it's easy not to pay much attention to the political subplot.

But speaking of female guidance (re Amanda's post), it's interesting how much weight Dorothea herself has throughout the book. I mean, she is such a rock. She counsels Lydgate, Rosamund, everyone, even Mr. Brooke. Dorothea is the one who directs him to make the repairs needed and comes up with the plan for new cottages. I came across this:

"because you mean to enter Parliament as a member who cares for the improvement of the people, and one of the first things to be made better is the state of the land nd the labourers. Think of Kit Downe's uncle, who lovies with his wife and seven children in a house with one sitting room and one bedroom hardly larger than this table!"

Throughout the novel Dorothea metes out wisdom and compassion and brilliance to characters whose personal limitations eat away at their attempted accomplishments.

Go to the Book Announcements Thread. Last post :-)

Oh yes thank you haha

Great comments Mark. I like your take on Mr. Brooke having an attention deficite disorder. I thought he was charming, not dumb, just flighty, and not vapid, but clueless because he seemed to get genuinely exciting by ideas though a failure when it came to putting them into action.

We need to keep the announcements thread and comments and questiosn about the book club thread separate. So post questions and such here. However, I do hope we don't get ourselves ina situation where we are discussing the books here before it's actually time for discussion. That happens sometimes, but anyway, here we go.

So!

TRAINSPOTTING - Not for the faint of heart lol! October 15

POISONWOOD BIBLE - November 15

I'm think we should start a meta-thread. This one is really supposed to be for announcements. If people post here, it makes it hard for others to see the annoucements quickly because they have to slog through other posts. So I'm going to close it again. But I'll open another for questions and such.

Silver has a good point. Dorothea is full of ideas and intellectual fervor but doesn't have much of an outlet. She esteems Casaubon but loves her idea of him rather than what he really is. She doesn't know what she wants because she is too young. She has a lot of passion for ideas but wants to put them into action, which is why she is terrified when Casaubon forces her to accept "the promise" before he dies; she thinks he's going to bind her to continue his work for all eternity and she'll be stuck in that sepulcher/study all her life cross referencing notes. I don't know that she really loved Casaubon either. If there is a commentary here it's not just about the limitations on women but on the problem of hasty matches based on little other than aquaintance and money followed by such a grim finality within the marriage. Lydgate's marriage to Rosamund is part of that same thread.

I think I love the language in this book best. The descriptions of Casaubon make me laugh, but I'm too lazy to go get some examples. He's a pathetic but somehow sympathetic character. I loved listening in on the conversations all the characters had behind his back though. In fact, that is a great characteristics of this style of writing. You feel like you are an invisible person with a front seat to all the gossip and inner thoughts of all these fascinating people.

Ok! New plan!

September 15 - Middlemarch
October 15 - Trainspotting
November 15 - Poisonwood Bible