Sue’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Sue’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

I like the suppressed Gothic idea too.

I haven’t been able to get back to it since last weekend but I am actually looking forward to it. There’s something perversely interesting about that man.

That’s an interesting perspective, Sandra, one I definitely had not considered. Murdoch intruding into his thoughts which he then reports to us as his doubts about his perceptions.

I felt like I was eavesdropping at a psychiatrist’s visit, not that Arrowby would ever have the degree of insight needed see a psychiatrist. His apparent level of self delusion was so huge. Even about that first love. He was only a teenager but had assigned both of them with lifelong roles and identities. And then he began to stalk her. Does he see himself at all? And his entire life problems, especially his love life, are her fault.

Is he having hallucinations, “LSD flashbacks” as he posits, or something else? Is he mentally unstable? So many questions. Funny how everyone he knows or has known has so many issues except for him…but it’s unsurprising after we see what he says about others and how he has apparently treated them in the past.

Of course the problem is we don’t know much for sure except for what we learn from Lizzie’s letter. I’m looking forward to what comes next.

Oh, I haven’t read anything else from Murdock.

Thanks for the clarification that this week is only on the Pre-history. I was just about to re-check what was written as the guide because I had copied some confusing directions. I’m ready to go after reading this different narrative, my first Murdoch. Does this begin on Sunday?

Maybe because I started this when I was tired, but I haven’t found it particularly smooth reading. I like it but the sentence structure requires good attention. He’s an interesting fellow, one I don’t think I would have wanted to know.

I didn’t read the introduction because I have had bad experiences with that in the past with coming upon information I really didn’t want to know. Maybe I should read a little if she keeps book discussion-free in the beginning.

The schedule looks good to me too, Kathleen.

That’s a good idea, Nidhi. I know I have read about her in the past, but whatever I learned is lost in the nether reaches of my memory.

I should have said my library system. It’s a consortium, not just one library.

As it happens, I have a copy on my kindle that I got some time ago since I have wanted to read this for a long time. My library also has 7 copies, 1 checked out, and the BPL, which everyone in Massachusetts can use, has two digital copies. Both have hold lists. So I guess she is read in southern New England too. I noticed there were a lot of copies of Banville’s The Sea. I think you may be on to something Ken about proximity to the ocean.

I agree. In spite of a less than optimal copy, I enjoyed this discussion which helped to open the book up for me.

I agree. This discussion definitely opened up the book for me, particularly after my less than perfect reading experience. I’m glad I read it.

Yes, very true on the allegorical level. I had been thinking literally. But blindness exists on many levels, doesn’t it. Efix has gone through various phases of “seeing” the reality of the sisters, their nephew, his own life. His vision has definitely been impaired. Was Don Predu initially blind to the possibility of love? And Noemie also? And the sisters blind to the effects of never paying Efix for all those years, leaving him dependent and in poverty?

Thanks for the information on the boy. I’d forgotten do Predu was paying him and about the timing of his buying the land. Don Predu has changed a lot over the course of the book and more, apparently, over the course of the sister’s adult lives. I wonder if his feelings for Noemie were even a surprise to himself.

As for the cause of the truly blind man (I believe there was one who was really sightless), there are so many physical causes especially among impoverished people. As for the fake blind, he knew a good scam.

Plateresca, I agree that the sisters did need Efix. Women of their class did not work the fields, probably would never have even considered that a possibility and would have starved before doing so. So Efix was their perfect solution. The fact that he would only meekly request pay and then ignore lack of wages was a plus for them and added to what financial security they had. Didn’t Efix arrange with a local boy to act for him while he went on his “search” for himself? He knew they would need help.

Carol, I think there is a steady beat of folklore and superstition running through the story, in many of the characters. Many festivals around the world have been superimposed on pre-Christian events and holidays or holy days. I don’t know enough about Sardinia to speak to their background, but I felt there was a very strong non-Christian or pre-Christian folklore/belief system at work. All the talk of witches seemed not in fun.

As for the sisters not marrying, I can imagine that their lands were being lost so they had limited dowerys. They might also have felt bound by their father’s words as he was such a domineering man.

The two marriages: if Noemie can accept that she is actually married to Don Predu, I think theirs would be the stronger marriage. The other will be destroyed by cheating and lack of money. Heaven forbid they have many children!

And I agree about the fatalism. I find it curious that those who went to America aren’t named. They seem to be written off.

Yes Cherisa, ultimately Efix learned the truth but it took a long time and it was after seeing through the other fraud. I think by then he really wanted to go home badly. If I remember correctly he had seen Don Pedro at a festival and decided to go home with him if he saw him again on his way home. But he must have used another route home. Maybe his wish to go home made him more honest in his look at his companion.

I thought that Efix replaced his “love” for Lia with the same feelings for Noemie, feelings he would, of course, never act on because of his class.