Hey, Sarah. I just started this and it's a hoot. I laughed out loud at the old-timey frontispiece. The Theory of Divine Refrigeration???

Well now it's turned serious, but still very good. I'm on the sheep farm in Tasmania, and those murderous thugs have just done their heinous act. I hope you (and anyone else) can join me soon. I was taken aback when on chapter two it said "37 years earlier."

Me, too. And I'm really glad you chose to find your own copy, because for the life of me I can't find mine! I looked high and low. Perhaps I lent it to someone else & can't remember it. I'm going to pick up another copy. I'll start back through it to both give you company and to get what I'm sure will be more out of it the second time around. My mom is in town now, though, so I might be sort of scarce for a few days.

Have you started this again, Sarah? I'm about 100 pages from the end. I love it, but I am having problems with the smallness of the print, and this is a trade paperback, too. I can't read very much at a time, because my eyes get tired. I should finish within the next couple of days. I better, since I plan on reading another doorstop, The Golden Notebook for Classics and I hope to get it finished in time for the discussion.

Ok, Sherry. You always make me get my butt in gear. I have been swamped lately (reading only a few pages a night before I can't keep my eyes open) and I haven't even gotten to the bookstore. I have a break this afternoon and will pick up another copy and go forth. I want to read this again, even though I love what I'm reading now (Evidence of Things Unseen, Wiggins, on Philip's recommendation). Off to the bookstore.

You guys have talked me into it. Just picked this up from the library yesterday.

R

Yay, Ruth. I think you'll like this.

GO RUTH! I have just come back from the bookstore with the "CR folks are killing my bankbook with their recommendations" haul. Even with my $10 off coupon and two of the books used, it was $50. Anyway, in addition to EP, I got The Book Thief for a friend and The Pillars of the Earth and Suttree for myself (are you listening, Kyle?). It's a hefty pile of pages. I'm not sure about the Lessing. I think I'll get it from the library and see what I think. I'm still working on the Wiggins and poor Mambo Kings got abandoned halfway through in favor of Run. I also forgot to pick up another copy of Bel Canto. I can read fast, but I CANNOT read as fast as I'd like in order to read all I'd like. That is one of the most frustrating things about being such a bookworm. I'm starting EP now, to catch up with you, Sherry.

Just wait, Sarah, the worst is yet to come. One morning, like me, you'll wake up and realize you're over 70 years old and there's no way you're going to finish all the books you want to read before you croak off.

R

Ruth, I'd be most grateful if you'd just let me continue on under the fantasy that some day I'll have enough time to read to my heart's content, and I won't die until I'm full.

Twilight Zone theme plays softly in the background -- title on screen Time Enough At Last.

Need I say more?

I dutifully got offline so that I could stop nattering on about books and get busy with the reading of them. I had to pop back on and post the first paragraph of English Passengers. I just love this book, and the opening is one of the best.

"Say a man catches a bullet through his skull in somebody's war, so where's the beginning of that? You might say that's easy. That little moment has its start the day our hero goes marching off to fight with his new soldier friends, all clever and smirking and waving at the girls. But does it, though? Why not the moment he first takes the shilling, his mouth hanging wide open like a harvest frog as he listens to the sergeant's flatterings? Or how about that bright sunny morning when he's just turned six and sees soldiers striding down the village street, fierce and jangling? But then why not go right back, all the way, to that long, still night when a little baby is born, staring and new, with tiniest little hands? Hands you'd never think would grow strong enough one day to lift a heavy gun, and put a bullet through our poor dead friend's brain."

Lest you think from this paragraph that this is some poorly disguised treatise against war, never fear. It is not anything like such a simple book. You all should have voted for it the times I nominated it. Anyone else along for this?

K, I'm in love with Kewley all over again. I love his voice.

Dottie, I love the Twilight Zone image.

Ruth and Sherry, I'm well into this book again, and my fear of rereading (that a book will never again grab me like it did the first time) has been entirely unfounded. I really love this book. His writing is so...well-turned, I guess; I don't know exactly how to describe it. Steve, this is definitely one you should read. Do you hear me?

Dottie, I watched the Twilight Zone when I was a teenager and it always managed to freak me out. Your comment made me immediately visualize that black and white image with its eerie music....and related to books, too! Yikes.

I made some inroads yesterday, but I'm still waiting for this book to grab me. It's not a good sign when I feel the urge to skim in the first 50 pages. Please convince me it's gonna get better.

If you don't like the first 50 pages, this may not be the book for you. But keep going--it may click.

I haven't given up yet. And I really did like that passage that Sarah quoted. It may be that I find the voice of the smuggler so enchanting, that the other characters (how dang many of them are there?) don't have a chance.

R

Oh, don't you love his voice, Ruth! I agree with Sherry, perhaps it's not a Ruth-grabber. But maybe it'll get there. I also like Peevay's voice. And the Rev Wilson is just such a great example of self-delusion that his passages always make me laugh. "I should make it clear that I had no wish to suggest myself. To do so, would have been against my very nature, which abhors any kind of self-advancement. THe thought, indeed, had not even occurred to me. I was simply concerned to define the correct qualities of leadership, for the sake of the expedition." And then, a half a page later..."Thus it was that, sudden and unsought for, this most difficult of honours appeared before me. THe suggestion was so unforeseen that I found myself quite taken aback, assailed by troubling thoughts. How could I even contemplate such a thing when there must be, surely, another far better suited?" etc.

Sarah, I finished this yesterday. I LOVED the way it ends. I'm so glad you persisted in getting someone to read this. What a book. Kneale did a great job in creating all the different voices, and the way he used totally new people to fill in bits of history or plot was pretty ingenious, however I often got antsy to hear more from Kewley or Peevay. Potter's journals maddened me in many ways. I had a hard time deciphering his sort of short-hand, but that style of writing was, I admit, important to get a sense of the man. What an abomination he was! In reading the Epilogue, I found out his ideas were based on a real person. How disturbing.

I've had to put this aside to try and cram in The Golden Notebook before the 1st. And wouldn't you know it, Bridge of Sighs just showed up from my library request and I get only 7 days to read it!
Since I've been waiting since last summer, I guess I'd better grab the chance.

But you read fast, Ruth, and boy will you have to with all those doorstops ahead.

I read English Passengers about six years ago, so I can't remember the names and other details, but I absolutely loved it. It's on my favourites list. I was blown away by the writing as much as the story - and, being from Tasmania myself, it's great to read a fantastic story about the history of my home state (it's also very accurate, too). But I was constantly amazed at the skill with which he switches voices. The characters really get under your skin, and the ending is so satisfying! I really must get around to re-reading this.

Sherry, I had to search around to find this. It got buried, and I was wondering if you ever finished it and what you thought of it. I'm SO GLAD you loved it. Even though we don't all like the same books, there are some you just ache to have someone else appreciate, and I was so unsuccessful at selling this to CR! I agree, his masterpiece is the voices. Unbelievable internal dialogue with the variety of characters. Shannon, it's great to hear from a native Tasmanian about the accuracy of the book. I did wonder about that. Potter was abominable, but I found the reverend equally so. I'm sorry it took me so long to find this thread again, but I think it disappeared about the same time I had to leave the board for a couple of weeks due to my load. I did start to reread it and am about 100 pp from the end. I got distracted by OCB and The Pillars of the Earth. I'm eager to hear what you think, Ruth.

Hey, I forgot about this thread, too. Yes, Sarah, my opinion of the preacher and the scientist kept switching back and forth. He's the most awful--no, HE's the most awful.

I'm sorry, Sarah. This didn't grab me like it did you. There were times though, when I was laughing out loud. Heehee to the preacher and the scientist. Wicked satire.

R

Gosh, I've picked this book up so many times and put it right back down. I have multiple bookseller friends, whose tastes I trust, call it one of their favorite books ever. But I just can't seem to bring myself to start.

However, I *will* say that I've just finished Kneale's new book that will be published this July and I am over the moon about it. It's called When We Were Romans, and is completely different from English Passengers. If you loved Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, you will love this.