3/22 Pond - whole book discussion

[Vesna]

This thread is reserved for the discussion.

[Tamara]

I read this a couple of weeks ago. It's an unusual book. I look forward to the discussion.

[Mark]

I just got started, and it's remarkable.

[Vesna]

Oh, I am so glad we'll have more readers to reflect on this book. In all honesty, I am right now going back and re-reading some parts, sensing that there is 'something' still illusive that I might have missed...

[Mindy]

I just finished reading Pond. I am also going back to reread parts of the book. I will start by saying that I found it interesting but I am having trouble understanding the character without wanting to diagnose her. She is interesting and complicated and her inner world is fascinating, not always in a good way.

[Bretnie]

I still don't know how I feel about this book! I loved the humor, but didn't love the plotlessness.

I listened to it as an audiobook which was a weird listen. She has such a formal way of speaking in a very specific British accent, but then when you listen to what she's saying, she's a different person. Does the print read that way too? I almost felt like it was set in a more historic time.

[Kathleen]

I am about 3/4 through, and have to say I wish I found the character's inner world fascinating, as Mindy says. I don't mind the lack of plot but so far I'm not finding anything interesting in what she's talking about. I'm guessing it's very subtle, and perhaps going over my head?

And Bretnie, it does read very formal in print as well, in parts. She uses the word highfalutin at one point, and I would call her word choice frequently highfalutin. :-)

[Vesna]

The writing style that reads very formal in some parts is exactly my problem and those are the ones I'm re-reading to understand better if there is something more subtle that escaped me. There are other parts that are easily flowing with spontaneous thoughts about daily things and I very much enjoy them. But then her style switches to the expressions as if prepared for a professional conference. At first I thought that it was intentional since the narrator was at some point in a postgraduate academic program and I thought she struggled to express herself more freely within the jargon more suited for a thesis writing. Now I don't think that's the case at all.

[Bretnie]

Interesting, thanks for describing the print experience! I wonder if part of that is intentional because of her solitude? She's trying to maintain this level of formality in her journal-style writing - here I am out here by myself rediscovering myself, isn't this romantic and philosophical? And then her true self seeps in that's more real and less formal?

[Vesna]

I like that interpretation, Bretnie. Not sure if that's what Bennett had in mind, but your way of reconciling her different writing styles makes it much more agreeable to this reader.

[Kathleen]

I was thinking too that it might have something to do with solitude: in your head a lot, conversing with yourself only, not exposing yourself to much casual speech, you might be prone to writing in language more like the books you're reading.

It really does feel like you say, Bretnie, "isn't this romantic and philosophical?" But I'm not seeing the romance or the philosophy, so I clearly need to keep digging.

[Bretnie]

Kathleen, yeah, maybe our narrator isn't seeing it either. I think the idea of taking yourself to a quiet cabin retreat sounds lovely, but after a while, the solitude isn't quite as lovely as you envisioned.

For some reason that reminded me of one of my favorite parts of the book. She says she isn't really that into men - only when she drinks. And she has the realization that she drinks a lot.

[Mark]

Oh my! I shall try to remember that: "Little pieces of restorative cheese." Like Pooh and his honey. (p.39)

[Kathleen]

Bretnie wrote: "For some reason that reminded me of one of my favorite parts of the book. She says she isn't really that into men - only when she drinks. And she has the realization that she drinks a lot."

Yes! That stood out to me too.

I've finished, and am sorry to say it continued to not work for me. I'm so curious to hear everyone else's thoughts though.

[Vesna]

Kathleen wrote: "I've finished, and am sorry to say it continued to not work for me. I'm so curious to hear everyone else's thoughts though."

I regret to say that it's similar with me, Kathleen. I've just stopped trying to love the parts with which I simply couldn't connect. All the same, I did enjoy her unique stream of thoughts/consciousness about everyday life, both the quotidian things and (sometimes) people, when she let herself to be spontaneous and often mixing humor with the Bernhardian grumpy directness.

[Tamara]

I enjoyed her eye for capturing minute details and her step-by-step descriptions, for example, the way she charts the passage of a beetle as it skirts across her forehead or listens to a spider moving through the grass. At times she seemed to go overboard in navel-gazing. If the novel had been much longer, I would have probably been bored by it. But at 150 pages, it was short enough to engage my interest.

I posted a review a couple of weeks ago: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Dianne]

I'm glad I read this but somehow from reading it I couldn't separate the narrator from the author, And it occurred to me that either or both seemed disturbed violent and quite possibly alcoholic. There was some brilliant imagery /notions in the book - some examples that I loved were:

p.37 Describing a feeling of well-being akin to coming home from school on a Thursday, as if 'some beneficent things were being done for me somewhere'

- how lovely!

p. 59 - The utterly awkward description of waiting for a date - feeling drawn to have a relationship but also repelled by courtship

p. 75 - The reference to "people who are hell-bent upon getting to the bottom of you are not the sort do you want around"

yikes - really?

p. 105 - The notion that if you are not from a place you will never hold the full force of that place's history

- so true, especially according to those who are from that place


Weirdest chapter: oh tomato purée p. 125

Most disturbing part: crazed holly burning p. 158

[Mark]

Oh dear: "which is typically produced when a protracted and half-hearted analytical process aggravates the superior auspices of an exasperated subconscious. Consequently, the emanation's illuminating glare softened soon enough," (p.56)

Along with the word salad, she slings her vocabulary like a shilalaigh! A children's song came to mind:

Scintillate, scintillate, globule orific,
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.
Loftily poised in the ether capacious,
Strongly resembling a gem carbonacious,
Scintillate, scintillate, globule orific,
Fain would I fathom thy nature specific.

Kathleen, is that hifalutin enough?

[Kathleen]

Yes, Mark--about as hifalutin as it gets! I had never heard that song. Wow, great comparison.

Diane, I think you uncovered something with your quote from p. 75 about people being hell-bent to get to the bottom of her. This must be a real bugaboo for her (I'm going lowfalutin). And I wonder if she is hiding herself under all of this kind of excess language? Then, as Bretnie said above, sometimes her true self seeps in.

[Mark]

Thoughts on reading "Control Knobs": GOOD GOD, woman! You can pester a supplier by email, but you can't wander over to a hardware store (perhaps with the one remaining knob in your pocket) and pick up a set of aftermarket replacement knobs? Ever heard of epoxy? AArgh! (I did get reminded of a vocabulary word: etoiliated.)

[Vesna]

I know that people react differently to the narrator but I actually quite like her, especially in the chapters like the one about door knobs or other daily objects, surroundings, situations, that all of us can relate to in one way or another.

As I am reminded that today is the International Women's Day, I am glad we are reading this month a woman author, evidently quite talented, even if sometimes her writing can turn a bit opaque for some of us. I for one very much look forward to reading her recent Checkout 19.

[Mark]

(Chattering on....) I had a flash where I began to visualize the author creating this narrator. The free association and verb tense jumps make the prose vividly personal so that it FEELS like the experience inside the writer's head. It's hard to remember that the author ~might~ be writing this on a word processor in an apartment, rather than with a stolen fountain pen in a reclaimed Irish cottage.

The changing lengths of the chapters is charming in itself; one never knows how long this particular ride will last.

[Vesna]

Mark wrote: "(Chattering on....) I had a flash where I began to visualize the author creating this narrator. The free association and verb tense jumps make the prose vividly personal so that it FEELS like the experience inside the writer's head."

I had the same feeling as you did, Mark, about the blurring line between the author and the narrator. I wonder if it was in part an autofiction... don't remember if she mentioned anything about it in her interviews.

[Anita]

I just finished the book and had two different thoughts about the narrator. Either her life was very empty or she suffered with an emotional disorder. I finished the book with great feelings of pity for her.

[Hugh]

After a second reading, this is still very much a curate's egg (good in parts) that I couldn't quite love as much as others did. Some of the descriptive writing is startlingly good, and it is brave to write a story that at least sounds so personal, but I still slightly prefer her more recent Checkout 19, which is more focused on literature.

[Tamara]

I've put Checkout 19 on my TBR. It looks interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, Hugh.

[Vesna]

Most of us who were reading Pond in this group share mixed feelings, but I have to say that my GR friends whose inspiring write-ups led me to many literary discoveries absolutely loved it. I am still puzzled why I couldn't entirely connect to it as they did and hope to re-read Pond after Checkout 19. Those parts that worked for me definitely show a very talented and original writer. Worth giving it a second chance, for sure.

[Bretnie]

Vesna, let us know how it goes!

[Vesna]

Bretnie wrote: "Vesna, let us know how it goes!"

Will do, Bretnie. It may not be any time soon but our book discussion threads never permanently "retire".

[Catherine]

She's certainly getting a lot of attention with Checkout 19. I also had mixed feelings, and puzzle why others loved it so much. I agree it may be worth a reread.

[Alwynne]

I finally started this again, I'd forgotten how much I liked it. I like the contrast between the precision/formality of the language and the haphazard nature of the narrator's life, it calls attention to the artificiality of narrative and how prose can create an illusion that there's an order to life that's essentially fairly random and chaotic. Also enjoy the way in which some passages remind me of still life painting - the description of the bowls on the windowsills for example. And the tension between nature and the "manmade". It's interesting too in that the style is very controlled and quite muted but then there are unsettling hints of savagery which suddenly burst through, the intensity of the fantasy about harming the cat who killed her favourite bird for example. And there are moments I could identify with, the ritualised aspect of the everyday, or maybe that's because I also like my porridge with a dot of jam and almond slivers on top!

[Sarah]

Alwynne wrote: "I finally started this again, I'd forgotten how much I liked it. I like the contrast between the precision/formality of the language and the haphazard nature of the narrator's life, it calls attent..."

Thank you for your helpful and well thought out commentary

[Alwynne]

Thanks!

[Vesna]

Alwynne wrote: "I finally started this again, I'd forgotten how much I liked it. I like the contrast between the precision/formality of the language and the haphazard nature of the narrator's life, it calls attent..."

Sarah beat me to it. Thank you, Alwynne, for your thoughtful comment about the artificiality of narrative. It gives me a very helpful angle to rethink those parts that I couldn't connect to because of the excessive jargon. As for everyday rituals, I also enjoyed them probably the most and frankly could relate to them.

[Alwynne]

I'm glad it helped, although just my opinion!