On the flight to and from Boston, I read Atonement.
Preface to any student currently reading this post: I was reading this book in lieu of reading papers because I do not like flying. I needed something to thoroughly distract me from the fact that I was flying. That, and I was paranoid about losing the papers. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. That's why I was able to finish a whole book while traveling for 16 hours but could not grade a single paper.
Basic plot: One moment (or two, depending on if the typed letter is another moment) witnessed by a young girl drives the young girl to later make a false accusation that leads to hardship for many involved. It happens in 1935. The book fast forwards to WWII. And then it leaps to 1999. Told from multiple perspectives.
Fascinating. A great read. The author focused on the right details and left the unnecessary ones out. He provided enough context for the narrative to continue in a way that made everything seem inevitable. In fact, as I read, that one word kept popping up in my head: inevitability. I seemed to hear Agent Smith from The Matrix saying, "Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability." Ok, so I may not have the quote exactly right, but at least I was not so geeky as to go look it up or rewatch the movie just to get the one quote right. So anyway, that got me to thinking about what created that feeling. Part of it was how the author would refer to how something would be important later, as in when it is said of Robbie, "later, he would regret that one decision." Or all of the references to Briony's writing and what she found to be of use to her later. The other was how all of the truly significant moments were told (and retold) in loving detail. And each telling focused on the details significant to the person doing the telling. All had a shred of familiarity-- the oddly real details, like the moisture evaporating from the damp spot near the fountain, anchor all of the narratives. Small things like that getting such big attention and emphasis in the text really make it seem significant. You get the whole sense that in this moment, time stood still, because after this moment, everything changed; therefore, the moment itself is of otherwordly importance.
The whole novel is really a study in how to write novels and write them well. One day, when I have tenure and my Ph.D. is finished and I have that almost mythological extra time in my life and career (will this ever happen????), I would love to teach a class on the novel. This book would have to be one of the last books read during a semester long study of the novel. It is that good for what it says about how to propel a narrative forward and what is authentic and what fails to ring true.
There were a couple of moments when I was reading where I though, "You know, that just doesn't seem right somehow" or "Why did the narrative skip like that just then?" Those parts become significant later. One of my friends who read the book before I did said I have to talk to her about it later because she really wants to know a couple of things or confirm a couple of things. After reading through to the end, I can guess what it is she wants to talk about. It's going to start a little something like, "Do you think such and such really happened this way or that way?" I know the way things happened and what the plot was vs. what it could have been because all of the clues were provided for the reader and I was drawn to notice the clues as I read along. And that mirrors and mimicks the false accusation perfectly! You can see exactly why Briony comes to the conclusion she does and how that leads to the false accusation, but then you are also given every possible clue as to who really did it and can see why some others think the way that they do. All the while, The Truth is there as second cousin to the "truth" that gets accepted as it is presented. It's like the real truth is there for us beneath the presentations of what we want to believe. And THAT is why I loved the book.
Have to admit though...I was blushing during the library scene. That is one part of the book where the author definitely did not leave anything to imagination.
Sidenote: I have not seen the movie, nor do I intend to. I read the book because the concept sounded really interesting but also sounded like something that would take a book to realize perfectly. I suspect I am correct in this. I have no clue how they'd adapt this book to film; however, I am grateful to the move trailers for a couple of things. First, Keira Knightley was perfectly cast as Cecilia. Having a mental picture of her in that role really helped. I also knew what the actress who plays Briony looks like and that helped as well. Third, the green dress that I've seen in ads for the movie was perfect. I would not have pictured it in the proper way without a visual reference already handy.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Book Club: Talk, Talk
Talk, Talk by T. C. Boyle
I meant to post about this long, long ago when I was actually reading it, but I haven't had a spare moment to do so.
This book has a deaf woman, Dana Halter, as a protagonist. She has her identity stolen by another character, Peck/William. I guess we oughtta call him the antagonist. Then there are also the significant others. Bridger is Dana's boyfriend and Natasha is Peck's girlfriend.
The character development in Boyle's novel is excellent. All of the people in the book feel like real people I could have met before. The weird thing is I had a mental picture for most of the characters, but not for the main character. I imagine Bridger to look just like a picture of the author I've seen in the Intro to Fiction book, kind of lanky with spiky brown hair and bird-like eyes. Natasha looks like this one former super model. The only physical detail I have for Dana is that she has lots of auburn hair. There was this one girl at my college who had a super-full mane of red hair. It was just one big huge triangle of hair. Friends of mine actually referred to her as "The Hair." That's my only frame of reference for what Dana must look like. But I know lots of people who have personalities similar to her. I could definitely recognize the personality traits of all of the characters.
The deafness in the novel puts an interesting spin on things. My sister-in-law, Val, is taking a couple of classes on this right now. She's in a finger spelling class that does interesting activities to get the hearing students to think about deafness. I once had a deaf student in one of my 101 classes. It was the most ADHD class I have ever had (and that is saying something). The smalllish room was packed full with 25 students, me, and the two interpreters. Then you have distractable me talking to the students as a whole with one person signing next to me, and about half of the students incapable of keeping a thought in their head without it spewing forth from their mouths. It was chaos. I actually envied the one student who was able to shut the other students out just by turning away from them.
It's such a shame, though, that people look at those with hearing disabilities as somehow lacking in intelligence. The novel makes reference to this several times. Dana talks about "the look" that people give her when they hear how her speech is different and how some strangers choose to talk to the other people with her instead of recognizing that she is a real person who also has a real need to communicate.
There was a big emphasis on words that Dana accumulated in order to help her students prepare for standardized testing. Interesting that this habit stops after a while.
I'm not going to say much about the ending here, but I did find it appropriate. Unexpected, but approporiate.
I meant to post about this long, long ago when I was actually reading it, but I haven't had a spare moment to do so.
This book has a deaf woman, Dana Halter, as a protagonist. She has her identity stolen by another character, Peck/William. I guess we oughtta call him the antagonist. Then there are also the significant others. Bridger is Dana's boyfriend and Natasha is Peck's girlfriend.
The character development in Boyle's novel is excellent. All of the people in the book feel like real people I could have met before. The weird thing is I had a mental picture for most of the characters, but not for the main character. I imagine Bridger to look just like a picture of the author I've seen in the Intro to Fiction book, kind of lanky with spiky brown hair and bird-like eyes. Natasha looks like this one former super model. The only physical detail I have for Dana is that she has lots of auburn hair. There was this one girl at my college who had a super-full mane of red hair. It was just one big huge triangle of hair. Friends of mine actually referred to her as "The Hair." That's my only frame of reference for what Dana must look like. But I know lots of people who have personalities similar to her. I could definitely recognize the personality traits of all of the characters.
The deafness in the novel puts an interesting spin on things. My sister-in-law, Val, is taking a couple of classes on this right now. She's in a finger spelling class that does interesting activities to get the hearing students to think about deafness. I once had a deaf student in one of my 101 classes. It was the most ADHD class I have ever had (and that is saying something). The smalllish room was packed full with 25 students, me, and the two interpreters. Then you have distractable me talking to the students as a whole with one person signing next to me, and about half of the students incapable of keeping a thought in their head without it spewing forth from their mouths. It was chaos. I actually envied the one student who was able to shut the other students out just by turning away from them.
It's such a shame, though, that people look at those with hearing disabilities as somehow lacking in intelligence. The novel makes reference to this several times. Dana talks about "the look" that people give her when they hear how her speech is different and how some strangers choose to talk to the other people with her instead of recognizing that she is a real person who also has a real need to communicate.
There was a big emphasis on words that Dana accumulated in order to help her students prepare for standardized testing. Interesting that this habit stops after a while.
I'm not going to say much about the ending here, but I did find it appropriate. Unexpected, but approporiate.
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