Buddy Read: The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux

[Sara]

Several of us have expressed an interest in reading this book, so I am setting up this thread for discussion. I have ordered a copy, but will not receive it until mid-October. If anyone begins before then, please feel free to post thoughts. I encourage the use of spoilers. Excited to see what each of us thinks of this book that has gotten such high marks from those who have already had the pleasure.

[Diane, "Miss Scarlett"]

I read this about 3 years ago, so won't re-read, but I'd love to follow the discussion. It's a great book.

[LA]

As a long time fan of Gautreaux and a south Louisiana local, I'll be happy to participate! I've read this twice over the years and once set up a full moon nighttime paddle for our book club on one of our bayous. This book makes you want to get out in the dark night and look for creepy stuff. Its also about the best story ever about sibling love.

[Sara]

LeAnne wrote: "As a long time fan of Gautreaux and a south Louisiana local, I'll be happy to participate! I've read this twice over the years and once set up a full moon nighttime paddle for our book club on one ..."

Wonderful! What a fantastic idea to cruise the bayou. I am very excited about reading this after loving The Missing.

Diane wrote: "I read this about 3 years ago, so won't re-read, but I'd love to follow the discussion. It's a great book."

I hope you will chime in, Diane. Doesn't matter when you read it. I know you always have something worthwhile to add.

[Candi]

I would love to join in on this buddy read if I can make it work. I'll see how the month of October starts off for me!

[Sara]

Please fit it in if you possibly can, Candi.

[[deleted user]]

I had scheduled 'The Tall Woman' this month as my reading tribute to Kirk's favorites list, but instead will be honored and delighted to join you in this buddy read. I have the book and can start whenever you're ready.

[Icewineanne]

This sounds like an excellent read. Will try to get a copy & join in ;)

[Brina]

I may join. I haven't read enough books from here this year and I was determined to read a book Kirk recommended before the year ended. My library should have it.

[Howard]

I just finished "The Clearing," but I look forward to participating in the discussion.

[Sue]

I only need to locate the book on my shelves and I will be ready to join in. This is going to be a busy reading month for sure.

Chandler, The Tall Woman is excellent. You have lots of great reading ahead.

[Sue]

Well I just made my first search of my books and can't find The Clearing. I'm wondering now if somehow it didn't make the cut when I moved! May have to use the library if I can't find it.

[Sara]

I have The Tall Woman on my reading list as well, Chandler, so maybe before the end of the year.

Sorry you can't find your copy, Sue. Very frustrating...been there. Hope you can get it at the library.

[Jan]

I've read The Clearing a long time ago; need to look it up and see just when. It's good, but I remember it as a little hard to penetrate. Will look forward to reading other people's response. It is very timely!

[Sue]

I looked further and found the book! I hope to start in a few days.

[Brina]

Sue, me too. I have another book to finish and then I'm going to start later this week. I will be offline for three days but will have plenty of time to read.

[Sara]

We should be starting together. My copy came in and when I have finished the book I am currently reading, this will be next in line.

[Sue]

Sounds good!!

[Sara]

I have made a beginning. The first six chapters. This book had me at the first paragraph. The language is very powerful and I can feel the heaviness of the air and the atmosphere.

(view spoiler)[Both Byron and Randolph are interesting characters, but Byron especially stirs a desire to know more. It is amazing how cheap life is in this kind of environment or that anyone would intentionally seek to live there. I am already afraid for both of these men. (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

I plan to join you soon. Loved the quote on your status update - it definitely the tone for this one.

[Candi]

I've read the first three chapters. I'm in for another great read, I can tell already. (view spoiler)[I sense a lot of compassion in the two brothers, and definitely an overwhelming feeling of danger. They are essentially 'stuck' in the middle of nowhere - a place difficult to reach transportation-wise, with some unsavory characters right in their midst. Feels much like a western novel :) (hide spoiler)]

[Sue]

I'm in the middle of a few books, but that seems to be the nature of my reading now. I hope to begin tonight or tomorrow.

[Sara]

You nailed it, Candi. It does (view spoiler)[have the feel of a Western novel. I am taken by all these characters. Even those with brief appearances so far seem to have depth and be made of flesh and bone. (hide spoiler)]

Chandler and Sue, you are going to be hooked, I think.

[Sue]

I stopped on page 7 to go to bed and was already impressed by the quality of the prose.

[LA]

So glad you guys are loving Gautreaux. He lived 20 miles from me until very recently, and I have lots of interesting little local details about his knowledge of trains and steamships. Great guy.

[Laura, "The Tall Woman"]

Hope to see him tomorrow at the Southern Festival of Books. I have not met him before. He's on a panel, "Mountain to Mountain: Appalachian Stories" with Ron Rash.

[Sara]

Lucky girls. Laura, you might tell him that he has a brand new forever fan in me. :)

He is certainly impressive when he talks about the steamships and trains, LeAnne. I loved that aspect of The Missing, and I'm thrilled to find it figures into this novel as well.

[Sue]

No wonder all the small details feel so real from the first sentence. That panel discussion should be excellent. Ah to be a fly on the wall.

[Sara]

Wow. This book left me reeling. (view spoiler)[It gains momentum like the trains he depicts so well...the feel of a steam locomotive whistles in the words.

I love both the brothers, their affection and their attempts to understand one another. The death of May and the scene with the cottonmouth and Walter was chilling. I loved Byron so much for his disregard for his own life, diving in to get the snake and suck out the poison from the snake bite. That was the moment at which I was SURE that Byron's salvation lay in that crib. Walter was the key.

It required a lot of love and sacrifice from Randolph to give Walter over to Byron, but I was glad because I felt that Ella would accept him fully, while I suspected that Lillian would always hold something back because of his origins.

The story about "why" Couch became the man he was was horrible, and it made me realize that none of these men started out as monsters. They just grew into that because of the experiences that life threw at them.

Merville was another brilliant character. Taking his body along on the raid, and having Minos say that he would have liked it that way. Just emphasized how hard he was fighting all his life to try and salvage whatever he could of decency and life in this harshness.

A great read. Two for two with Gautreaux! (hide spoiler)]

I gave it 5-stars and enjoyed it completely. Kirk knew a good book when he read one.

[Sue]

I'm way behind here trying to finish another book for Sunday but I have a feeling I will catch up quickly from how you progressed, Sara.

[Sara]

Once I got started, I couldn't put it down to do even important stuff. My husband is probably glad it is done. I was thinking about it when I went to bed last night and again as soon as I got up this morning. Anxious to here your thoughts, Sue.

[Sue]

I read about 35 pages just before bed last night (actually more like 3 this morning). The train ride south is an amazing piece of writing, going back in time and history, just through travel. The writing is superb and I had the feeling I was there. Now I have a start of an idea what others have been talking about. I'm in awe of this prose...all of the ability with no apparent gimmicks. I'm so glad this little group exists and I'm finally reading this.

[Laura, "The Tall Woman"]

Yesterday at the Southern Festival of Books this was my favorite panel. Tim (bc his last name is too hard for me to spell) read from his new collection of short stories. He had the audience in stitches by reading the first five pages of Attitude Adjustment in the collection called Signals. If you get to take a look at this collection be sure to look that one up. Hilarious!

[Candi]

I'm at Chapter 16, a little over 60% completed. Wished I could have read more this weekend, but we have family in town. I agree that the writing is superb. I am really enjoying reading about these brothers and their relationship.

(view spoiler)[Such violent conditions in which these men work! And then the threat of Buzetti leaves me feeling tense throughout. I am really hoping that spending time with little Walter somehow manages to heal Byron. His is a crushed soul. (hide spoiler)]

[Candi]

Laura, that sounds fantastic! I've never been to a book festival before. I would love to attend one someday :)

[Laura, "The Tall Woman"]

It's nerdy, but we enjoy it. It usually falls on our anniversary weekend. So it's books and dinner. It seems to work.

[Candi]

That would be the perfect anniversary for me, Laura - can't get much better than books and food :)

[LA]

Fyi, Gautreaux's new book is now available essay audio loan from the library! I just downloaded it.

[Sara]

I also think that sounds like a perfect way to celebrate. I'll be looking for his new book. Usually takes a while here. Our library is very small and not connected to any larger ones. Price of living in the country.

[[deleted user]]

I'm over halfway through and find myself somewhat hypnotized. This guy writes incredible dialogue. And I can see and smell and taste and feel every single scene I'm reading.

[Sara]

Exactly how I felt, Chandler. He describes the mosquitoes rising off the bodies of the men sawing the trees and I felt itchy all over.

[Tom, "Big Daddy"]

Chandler wrote: "I'm over halfway through and find myself somewhat hypnotized. This guy writes incredible dialogue. And I can see and smell and taste and feel every single scene I'm reading."

It's been a while since I've read it but I seem to recall that there were some scenes that I would have no desire whatsoever to smell, taste and feel. Still, it was an awesome book that I really need to reread.

[Sue]

I've added the new book to my list, though I do have his backlist to read too.

[Sue]

Tom wrote: "Chandler wrote: "I'm over halfway through and find myself somewhat hypnotized. This guy writes incredible dialogue. And I can see and smell and taste and feel every single scene I'm reading."

It's..."

Have to agree, Tom, but I practically feel like I'm in the middle of it all while I'm reading. Very effective writing.

[LA]

His older book The Missing is very good and set in New Orleans, on paddle wheelers, and upriver wilds.

[Candi]

Chandler wrote: "I'm over halfway through and find myself somewhat hypnotized. This guy writes incredible dialogue. And I can see and smell and taste and feel every single scene I'm reading."

Agree with you completely, Chandler. This definitely takes you right there to Randall's front porch, the saloon, and the mill itself. I feel like the fly on the wall. Besides the dialogue between Randall and Byron, I am very much enjoying that between Merville and the old priest.

[Candi]

LeAnne wrote: "His older book The Missing is very good and set in New Orleans, on paddle wheelers, and upriver wilds."

I know I'm going to have to read that one too, LeAnne. And anything else Gautreaux has written :)

[Sara]

Yes, I loved The Missing. Two 5-star reads from this gentleman has put him on my "I'll read anything he writes" list.

[Diane, "Miss Scarlett"]

I read this one in February, 2014, and still remember feeling every drop of sweat, every mosquito bite, the humidity, the mud during the rains, etc. One of my favorite phrases was "The many fanged geophraphy of the swamp", an apt description if ever there was one.

[Candi]

Sara wrote: "Yes, I loved The Missing. Two 5-star reads from this gentleman has put him on my "I'll read anything he writes" list."

It was your wonderful review that prompted me to add The Missing to my list, Sara :) I think we are about even as far as swelling each other's shelves ;0