Tag: marriage

Love at Second Sight

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Leverson, Ada. The Little Ottleys: Love at Second Sight.

Reason read: to finish the series started in August.

When we catch up to the lovely Edith she is now the mother of a ten year old and still married to the horrible Bruce. It has been three solid years since Bruce was so taken with Mavis Argles that he tried to run away and elope in France. It didn’t work out and Edith, faithful to a fault took him back. Home again, Bruce continues to point out Edith’s shortcomings like they are earth-shattering catastrophes, “…as a matter of fact, a curl by the right ear was only one-tenth of an inch further on the cheek than it was intended to be” (p 348), but Edith just shrugs him off more than ever. Despite her steadfast loyalty to Bruce, Edith hasn’t completely forgotten Aylmer Ross. Alymer, home with a war injury, is still madly in love with Edith, but she stubbornly is determined to make her marriage work.
The new element of Love at Second Sight is that Edith and Bruce are housing a widow who shows no signs of leaving. We have no idea where she came from or why she is there but, Madam Frabelle charms her way into every person’s heart and influences every mind. She determines the outcome of Love at Second Sight.

As an aside, Bruce and Madame Frabelle’s little journey confused me a little. First they are on a train, then a boat, then they frequent a hotel for lunch. Then they pop over to Hampton Court and then back to the river where Bruce shows off his rowing skills and then back to the Belle of the Rover and to the train. What a day!

Music: Mozart, Handel, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, “Drink To Me Only with Thine Eyes,” and “I’ll Sing Thee Songs of Araby.”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Viragos” (p 227).

Tenterhooks: The Little Ottleys

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Leverson, Ada. The Little Ottleys: Tenterhooks. Virago, 1908.

Reason read: to continue the series started in August.

We return to the marriage of Edith and Roger. By this time they have been married for eight years. As a twenty-eight year old, Edith has more spunk in Tenterhooks. Her relationship with Aylmer is one of refreshing independence and gaiety. I practically cheered when she ended a letter to him with “I want you” even though it was not what she intended to say. Poor Aylmer! But there is hope for Edith. She spreads her social wings, becoming popular with the Mitchells to the point where they cannot have a social gathering without her in attendance. She is desirable and charming. She even laughs off her husband’s verbal abuse and silly philandering. She proves to be stronger than he ever imagined.
Tenterhooks is a society brimming with silly people. Someone could say “do not write to me but here is my address of where I will be…”; where when marriage happens by accident that relationship greatly scandalizes the community for decades. The insult of the day was to say that someone was dowdy or out of fashion. Eloping while married can be laughed at and ignored.

Quote I liked: even though I did not care for Mr. Ross as a person I liked when he said “Time doesn’t go by hours” (p 218). More quotes to quote, “Why cry for the moon?” (p 269) and “It is human to play with what ones loves” (274).

Music: Tosti, Melba, Caruso, Bemberk, Dubussy, and Brahms.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Viragos” (p 227).

Carrying the Tiger

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Stewart, Tony. Carrying the Tiger: a Memoir: Living with Cancer, Dying with Grace, Finding Joy While Grieving. West End Books, 2025.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I occasionally hit upon poignant books that stay with me long after I have read the last word. This is one such book.

Just by the title of the book, you know the subject matter is going to be hard to read. The subtitle “Dying with Grace” pretty much tells you that someone does not survive cancer. And so, almost begrudgingly, you steel yourself for a tough time of it. Tough time, it most certainly was. At times I found myself asking why I was so affected. I don’t know Tony or Lynn at all. Except, the more I read, I felt like I did. Tony’s words were so intimate and honest. Even beyond the unfathomable sadness, quite unexpectedly I ended up laughing, getting angry, and caring. Chapter by chapter, page by page – laughing, getting angry, crying, and caring. Over and over again. Full confessional: I had to read this in fits and starts. Sitting with Stewart’s words for long periods of time was difficult for me to do. I’m still not 100% finished.
Carrying A Tiger starts on a Sunday in September in 2014. Lynn had been feeling ill on and off for two months and on this particular Sunday she learned why. This was the first time the couple learned something was terribly and terminally wrong. For the next six years Stewart (and his wife) bravely shared every part of the couple’s journey through cancer. The intimacy through words is astounding.

As an aside, the title of the book comes from Tai Chi. There is a gesture of scooping low as if to collect a tiger to put him as far away as possible. The further away, the more he is perceived to be small and of little consequence. I have to wonder if Tai Chi is a common prescription for cancer patients. My OM had a bunch of videos found in her collection after her death from a brain tumor and my coworker mentioned Tai Chi while she was going through chemo.
As another aside, I had an ah-ha moment while reading Carrying the Tiger. Tony wrote about “…downplaying painful details” so that friends would not abandon them. Maybe that is what happened with J. Maybe when I shared the awful month when OM died it was TMI and so they ghosted me. I said too much.
As a third aside, Tony’s description of “Covid-19 times” brought back memories. When he described people banging on pots and pans to honor the healthcare workers I remembered my drummer friend who religiously drummed every night at 7pm from his Brooklyn window.

Author fact: Tony Stewart is not a writer by trade. He began his foray into a relationship with words when he kept a journal on CaringBridge.org. The words did not stop just because Lynn was no longer with him. The words became this book.

Book trivia: I was surprised to see color photographs. How lovely.

As an aside, I am a fan of anyone who quotes e.e. cummings.

Confessional: I need to know if Stewart has seen “After Life” written by and starring Ricky Gervais?

Children’s Bach

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Garner, Helen. The Children’s Bach. Pantheon Book, 1984.

Reason read: May is music month but there is not much in the way of music in this book.

Within less than two hundred pages Helen Garner has managed to condense a complete picture of the institution of marriage. Dexter and Athena Fox had a steady, quiet relationship. They went for long walks and coexisted in relative peace. That is, until along came Elizabeth, a former friend of Dexter’s from college. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but without warning Elizabeth started shaking up their lives with her rock musician boyfriend and his teenage daughter in tow. Suddenly, Athena was seeing the world through a different lens and started to wonder if she made the right choices early in life. Her marriage. Her lifestyle. Her future. It as if Athena experienced a mid-life crisis of epic proportions.

Quotes I had to acknowledge, “In this frame of mind, savage with homesickness and loneliness, she roamed the city, daring it to tackle her” (p 36). So beautiful. And this was, that made me laugh, “He was chucking a mental” (p 130).

Confessional: Gaps in the dialogue make the action jumpy. When did Dexter agree to give Elizabeth and Vicky a ride? One minute they are in the airport, the next they are traveling in a car.

Author fact: Garner published many of her journals. She also wrote Monkey Grip which is on my challenge list.

Book trivia: the foreword forewarned of the numerous characters. Indeed. Athena. Dexter. Arthur. Billy. Elizabeth. Vicky. Philip. Poppy. The fact that the book made Rumaan Alam want to go for a run is intriguing. Supposedly she hates to run.

Setlist: Ravel’s Bolero, La Traviata, Haydn, “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”, “The Wild Colonial Boy”, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”, Steve Winwood, Elvis Presley, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Mary Ford and Les Paul’s “How High the Moon”, Don Giovanni, “The Vicar of Bray”, “Jerusalem”, Mikrokosmos by Bela Bartok, Bach’s Small Preludes, Kabelevsky, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”.

Nancy said: Pearl admitted that The Children’s Bach was old and hard to get a copy of.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter called “Australia, the Land of Oz: Fiction (p 26).

Caspian Rain

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Nahai, Gina B. Caspian Rain. McAdams, 2007.

Reason read: the Iran hostage crisis ended on January 20th, 1981. Caspian Rain takes place in Iran. Read to celebrate a moment in history.

Twelve year old Yaas tells the sad tale of her mother Bahar’s marriage to her father, Omid. Bahar had come from a poor family full of shame. Her mother was a seamstress who cannot sew and her father was a cantor who could not carry a tune. Why Omid would want to marry beneath him is anyone’s guess. Baha left school to get married during her eleventh grade year and not even a year into her marriage she was desperate to return to school. Iranian custom did not allow her to continue her education as a married woman. Like a child who keeps running away from home, Bahar kept trying to stretch her independence, only to be dragged back to the life of a housewife. One has to feel sorry for Bahar. The old adage is true: you do not know what you do not know. Bahar was so poor she didn’t recognize a poor gift as a snub or insult. Iranian culture states that a divorced woman is a shame upon the family. She who separates from her husband has no rights, no family, no home, no money; nothing to call her own. So when Omid starts a public affair with another woman, Bahar can do nothing but suffer the disgrace in silence. Nahai gracefully details the gender and religious expectations of life in Iran.
I think Americans have a difficult time with the characters of Caspian Rain because of the cultural divide. We cannot relate to a woman who suffers so much abuse. I know I had a difficult time with the sister who was repeatedly beaten and locked in a shed with pigeons. To escape cruelty she made the only logical decision available to her.

The best line in the whole book, “For every sin, a virtue; every cruelty, a measure of mercy” (p 229). So beautiful.

Author fact: Nahai also wrote Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith. I will be reading it in the month of June a few years from now.

Playlist: Nahai rarely mentions specific songs in Caspian Rain although there is plenty of opportunity. There is a character called the Opera Singer who tries to sing. There is a Tango Dancer who never names the songs she dances to by name. Of the music Nahai does mention: “On This Moonlit Evening”, Ringo Starr, and Doris Day.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the obvious chapter called “Iran” (p 109).

Roadside Confessions

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Feulner, Glen. Roadside Confessions. Glen Feulner, 2024.

Reason read: This is one of my favorite Early Reviews from LibraryThing.

This is fiction. This is fiction. This is fiction. I have to say that to myself over and over again like a mantra because Roadside Confessions is so beautifully believable and I (confessionally), I wanted it to be true. The journey is real. The grief is real. Grief puts people on pedestals and guilt gives them a golden halo. The suicidal tendencies are real (desire to burn by fire; drown in the ocean; hang inches above the dirt; a gun to the temple). What started as a writing exercise for Glen Feulner in 2003 turned into an AI-assisted love story. A man, torn apart by grief and guilt after losing his wife to cancer, makes a California to Maine sojourn to come to terms with his loss. Added to the drama: he might commit suicide along the way. As they say in Maine, hard tellin’ not knowin’.
While Roadside Confessions is a short read (I cracked it open on my lunch break and inhaled it faster than my black bean burrito), the words are powerful and the accompanying photographs are just gorgeous. Speaking of photography, only a handful belong to the author (fourteen, I think) and that was my a-ha moment. They are all beautiful nature shots and not a one is of the deceased beloved wife. But. I digress. Back to the writing.
Feulner sinks down and grinds into what it feels like to mourn deeply. If you have ever listened to Dermot Kennedy’s music and really heard his passionate lyrics, you could make the comparison. Feulner is just as lyrical and emotional. You just have to get over the voice changing from speaking about Allison to speaking to Allison. If you owe the reader nothing, do not assume our expectations. Besides all that, I (obviously) enjoyed every word and when I get over the fact it isn’t a true story I’ll read it again and again.

As an aside, I want to meet Kathleen Jor Hall-Dumont. I like blunt people.

As an another aside, Feulner tells his readers that there is a Roadside Confessions playlist on Spotify that readers can listen to. Maybe I don’t have the right subscription but I couldn’t find it. Bummer. Here is the music mentioned in Roadside Confessions:
The Replacements, Elvis Costello, the Smiths, and Death Cab for Cutie.
Here is another disappointed – this was an AI assisted book.

Pride

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Cary, Lorene. Pride: a Novel. Nan A. Talese Publisher, 1998.

Reason read: Pride is what some would call “chick lit” which I also call “beach reads” and since August is the last good month to visit the shore…

The friendship of four women. Each one of them has issues, both public and private. Roz (Rozzie) is the wife of a successful politician who has now set his sights on a higher office. At the same time as battling cancer, Roz is trying to be a mother to a difficult teenager and supportive of her husband’s ambitions. What she can’t get behind is the fact he has been having an affair with one of her best friends. Arneatha is an Episcopal priest locked in grief after losing her husband. She struggles to find herself in a world without him. Tam is the equivalent of Steve Martin’s wild and crazy guy. She does not take her sex life or career seriously. Audrey is a recovering alcoholic is struggles everyday with lure of addiction. And speaking of Audrey, Lorene Cary painted a fuller picture of Audrey with more colorful detail than any of the other women. It was if Cary knew Audrey best.
Pride is a testament to friendship. Like a pride of African lions, the women of Cary’s novel need to stick together in order to survive.

Quote to quote, “And the drums kept pounding like I love them” (p 318). Amen.

Author fact: Cary also wrote The Price of a Child which is on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: this should be a movie.

Playlist: “You Are So Beautiful to Me”, “My Funny Valentine”, “America the Beautiful”, “Maple Leaf Rag”, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, Boyz II Men, James Brown, LL Cool J, “Zip-A-Dee Doo Dah”, Piaf, Mahalia Jackson, Lena Horne, Michael Jackson, “Four O Clock Blues”, James Brown, Bong Crosby, “Only the Lonely”, Duke Ellington, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”, Peggy Lee’s “Is That All That There Is?”, Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song”, “Getting to Know You”, Rachmaninoff, the theme from Family Matters, the theme from Magic Flute, and “Claire de Lune”.

Nancy said: Pearl includes Pride in a list of books to consider.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “African American Fiction: She Say” (p 13).

Carnival

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Mackenzie, Compton. Carnival. D. Apple & Company, 1921.

Reason read: the Culzean Summer Fair happens in July in Scotland. A good portion of Carnival takes place in Glasgow.

The life of Jenny is a complex story with themes of identity, love, and sacrifice. Her journey is a verbose exploration of the human experience, filled with unexpected twists and turns. Throughout the narrative, Jenny’s internal struggles and external choices paint a vivid picture of a woman who is unafraid to defy societal norms and follow her heart, despite the challenges she faces. The exploration of her gender identity, her romantic entanglements, and her passion for ballet all contribute to a rich and multi-layered portrayal of her character. For lack of a true plot in Carnival Jenny navigates the tumultuous seas of love and self-discovery. Her interactions with the men in her life, Maurice, Fez and Zack, reveal the complexity of her emotions and the depths of her desires. Her willingness to make bold decisions, such as sacrificing her career and friendships for a life in the country, highlights the fierce and unyielding nature of her convictions. Jenny’s story is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the complexities of the heart. It does not come without a warning.

Lines I liked, “There is nothing to counterbalance the terrors of childhood in Hagworth Street” (p 30) and “It was glorious to think of someone who could make the worst headache insignificant and turn the most unsatisfactory morning to a perfect afternoon” (p 196).

Author fact: Compton Mackenzie’s full name was Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie.

Book trivia: Carnival was interpreted on the big screen three different times. Of course I have not seen any version.

Music: “March of the Priests”, “Athalie”, Wagner, Brahms, Verdi, “Tannhauser”, “Lucky Lindy”, Chopin, Victoria Monks, “The Eton Boating Song”

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Tickle Your Funny Bone” (p 217). But, here is the thing. Carnival is only listed because it is one of the first ten books reprinted by Penguin. None of those ten books were necessarily known for their humor. Mackenzie, however, did write some funny stuff.

Year of Lesser

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Bergen, David. A Year of Lesser. Harper Collins Publishers, 1996.

Reason read: Canada Day is in July. A Year of Lesser takes place outside Winnipeg in a small town called Lesser.

Orbital relationships. At the center is Johnny. What is it about this man that has women lining up to act the fool for him? His wife, Charlene, is never on the same page about wanting or not wanting children. His mistress is already a mother with a teenaged son. Both slobber over him despite the fact he is a man-child who can’t decide between love and lust. He works for a feed store and runs a drop-in center for teens. It’s complicated.
No question Johnny worships women. He observes them through a detailed and hungry lens. He notices the soles of their feet, their popped-pregnant belly buttons, the curve of an upturned nose. Yet, Johnny is a God-fearing, born again and again, Bible reading religious man. It’s complicated.
I felt bad for Charlene. What is she supposed to do about a husband who admits he is having a child with another woman? The whole town knows about Johnny and Loraine. Then I felt bad for Loraine. Pregnant with Johnny’s child and yet, he stops coming around. Rumors like smoke from a fire start to swirl about Johnny and a teenaged girl. It’s complicated.

Detail I had trouble with: Johnny is trying to quit smoking. You don’t readily carry cigarettes if you are trying to quit. How then can Johnny so easily offer Loraine a smoke?

Author fact: Bergen has written a bunch and Nancy said he is one of her favorites, but I’m only reading The Year of Lesser for the Challenge.

Line I liked, “He’s trying to weigh time and desire” (p 7).

Playlist: Led Zeppelin, Peter Tosh, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and the Rankin Family,

Nancy said: Pearl said the author was a favorite of hers.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Canadian Fiction” (p 51).

The Bell

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Murdoch, Iris. The Bell. Viking Press, 1958.

Reason read: January is Female Mystery Month and so I am reading The Bell in honor of Iris Murdoch and her mysterious bell.

Iris Murdoch takes you into the religious world of Imber Abbey, a cloistered community of nuns. This devout group is about to receive a long awaited bell to replace one lost to magic and mystery. The Bell‘s plot focuses on a cast of damaged people living outside Imber Abbey: Paul Greenfield, there to translate fourteenth century manuscripts; his wife Dora, there because she feels obligated to stay in a loveless marriage; Michael, the leader of the lay community; Tobey, a curious man about to attend Oxford; Catherine, a beautiful woman about to entire Imber Abbey; her twin brother, Nick, there to be close to her one last time; and the old Abbess, the wise and all-seeing head of Imber Abbey.
Lurking in the background of The Bell is the legend of the original bell named Gabriel. The story goes, as Paul relayed to Dora, a fourteenth century nun was supposedly having an illicit affair but could not and would not confess to it. Because he could not punish the singular guilty woman, the Bishop cursed the entire abbey, causing the tower bell, the aforementioned Gabriel, to catapult itself (himself?) into a nearby lake. The guilty nun was so distraught by this phenomenon she was rumored to have drowned herself in the selfsame lake. When Gabriel unexpectedly resurfaces, with the help of Dora and Tobey, each character wonders what it could mean to Imber Abbey and to themselves.
Confessional: The character of Dora confused me almost as much as she confused herself. I wasn’t even sure I liked her. Extremely immature, she would make up her mind to not do something but then go ahead and the thing anyway (not buy multicolored skirts, sandals and jazz records, not go back to Paul, the abusive husband; not give up her seat on the train. I could go on). There is a dazed and confused ignorance to her personality that I found either charming or annoying, depending on the minute. Dora is described as an “erring” wife, but how errant can she with an abusive ogre of a husband? He is condescending and cruel, telling her she is not his woman of choice.

Lines I liked, “But even if she doesn’t care about her husband’s blood pressure she ought to show some respect for the boy” (p 213).
there is one scene that has stuck with me that I must share. Dora is attending the baptism of the new bell. On one side of her is her silently seething husband, Paul, who has her gripped violently by the wrist. On the other side of Dora is her former lover, a reporter there to cover the story of the bell. During the struggle to free herself from Paul’s torment, Dora drops a letter meant for a third man. The reporter is the one to successfully retrieve the missive. It is an incredibly short scene filled with tension.

Author fact: The Guardian has a number of great blog posts about Murdoch.

Book trivia: The Bell is Murdoch’s fourth novel. I am reading a total of twenty-six for the Book Lust Challenge.

Short playlist: Bach, “The Silver Swan”, “Monk’s March”, and Mozart.

Nancy said: Pearl listed all twenty-six Murdoch novels and put an asterisks by her favorites. Was The Bell a favorite? Read Book Lust to find out.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in the chapter called “Iris Murdoch: Too Good To Miss” (p 161).

Staying On

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Scott, Paul. Staying On. Avon books, 1977.

Reason read: The Booker Prize was awarded in October. Staying On is a Booker Prize recipient.

On August 15th, at the stroke of midnight in 1947, British rule comes to an end and India has gained her independence. Not all British soldiers have departed India in shame, though. Colonel Tusker Smalley and his wife, Lucy, have stayed on. It is now 1972 and the couple have started to fade in money, health, vitality, and the real reason they decided to remain in the remote hill station of Pankot. Everything is in question now. Complicating matters is their antagonistic landlady, Mrs. Bhoolabhoy. Bhoolabhoy is determined to humiliate the British couple into leaving her country. After all these years her tactics are getting more and more hostile, forcing the English couple to renew their commitment to one another.
A backdrop for Staying On is the tapestry of culture and caste. What it means to have wealth and status in a country on the verge of finding a new identity. The Smalleys and the Bhoolabhoys are no different in their hope for the future.

Author fact: Scott also wrote the Raj Quartet. I am only reading The Jewel in the Crown, book one of the four.

Book trivia: as mentioned before, Staying On won the Booker Prize. I probably should have read The Jewel in the Crown before Staying On. Oh well.

Quotes to quote, “I’ll sue the bitch from arsehole to Christmas” (p 29), “I feel worn to a shadow”, (p 125),

Playlist: “Onward Christian Soldiers”, “Flowers of the Forest”, “God Save the King”, “Abide with Me”, All Things Bright and Beautiful”, “These Foolish things”, the Inkspots, Judy Garland, Dinah Shore’s “Chloe”, and Ravi Shankar”.

Nancy said: Pearl compared Staying On to Women of the Raj.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “India: a Reader’s Itinerary (History)” (p 125).

Little Bee

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Cleave, Chris. Little Bee. Narrated by Anne Flosnik. Tantor Media, 2009.

Reason read: Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s outgoing president was elected in March of 2015. Read in his honor.

Oh, the decisions we make. Have you ever been in a situation where you make a blunder and in an hurried attempt to remedy the situation you make more mistakes? I think of it as stepping in dog sh-t. You are so panicked and embarrassed by the smell emanating from your foot that you don’t think about the most efficient way to clean it off and instead track it around and around looking for a suitable way to wipe it off. This is Sarah’s plight. Upon making a huge marital mistake Sarah tries to remedy it with a quick and careless solution: run away from the problem by taking a free holiday. The trouble only multiplies and multiples until Sarah is faced with dead ends and deep regret. Told from the perspective of Sarah and a Nigerian girl Sarah meets on holiday named Little Bee. Little Bee’s story of trauma will wrap around Sarah until they are forever melded together.

I cannot get over the imagery of Cleve’s writing. Take this combination of words, for example: “butterflies drowning in honey”. What the what?

Author fact: While Cleave has written other books, I am only reading Little Bee for the Challenge. This is his second novel.

Book trivia: Little Bee is published elsewhere as The Other Hand.

Playlist: “One” by U2 and “We Are the Champions” by Queen.

Nancy said: Pearl said a great deal about Little Bee. She called it unforgettable and perfect for book groups. I completely agree because there are so many different themes to ponder and argue about.

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust To Go in the chapter simply called “Nigeria” (p 156).

Heartburn

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Ephron, Nora. Heartburn. Pocketbooks, 1983.

Reason read: a Christmas gift to myself.

What do you do when you are seven months pregnant and you discover your second husband is having an affair? To make matters worse, you already have a handful in the form of a two year old named Sam. It’s complicated to say the least. Heartburn is fiction but it could be all true. Ephron based this fictional falling apart of a marriage on her own experiences with love gone awry. Told from the perspective of Rachel, a cookbook author who has discovered her husband is having an affair with someone in their social circle. Like all good gossips, everyone knows Thelma is having a fling with someone’s husband. They all take turns guessing until Rachel discovers it’s her Mark Thelma has been seeing. Heartburn is at once heartbreaking and hilarious. Rachel’s revenge is sweet and swift.

Lines I liked, He said it with the animation of a tree sloth” (p 87) and “Second of all, it means even a simple flat inquiry like “How’s Helen?” is taken amiss, since your friend always thinks that what you hope he’s going to say is “Dead.” ” (p 138).

Author fact: Ephron was better known for her romantic comedies, but she was also a journalist and novelist.

Book trivia: Heartburn contains fifteen recipes.

Playlist: Irving Berlin’s “Always”.

Nancy said: Pearl said Nora is best known for Heartburn.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “All in the Family: Writer Dynasties” (p 5).

Unbearable Lightness of Being

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Kundera, Milan. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Translated by Michael Henry Heim. Harper Row, 1984.

Reason read: I honestly don’t remember why.

My favorite scene was when Tereza and Sabine spend time together. An odd friendship blossomed between wife and lover as they photograph each other in the nude.

I love it when books intersect one another. I am finishing up Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and learn that the dog in The Unbearable Lightness of Being is named after Karenin. The Unbearable Lightness of Being reminded me of another book as well, Orchard. I found myself asking the same question about morality. What form of “cheating” is worse, emotional infidelity or physical betrayal in the form of fornication? Is there something to be said for complete and utter loyalty? Either way, I didn’t like any of the characters so that made The Unbearable Lightness of Being all the more difficult to enjoy.

Quote that spoke to me, “and he knows that time and again he will abandon the house of his happiness.”

Author fact: People sell tee shirts with Milan Kundera quotes on them. I wonder what he would think of that.

Book trivia: The Unbearable Lightness of Being was published in the New Yorker as a serial.

Nancy said: Pearl called The Unbearable Lightness of Being Kundera’s best known novel. She also called it a “stellar example of literary erotica” (Book Lust p 218).

BookLust Twist: from Book Lust in two chapters. The Unbearable Lightness of Being shows up in the chapter called “Czech It Out” (p 70) and in “Sex and the Single Reader” (p 218). She is not wrong.

Orchard

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Watson, Larry. Orchard. Random House, 2003.

Reason read: Wisconsin became a state in May.

Don’t be fooled by the simple plot. This is more than a story about a husband and wife. This is a historical piece. [The reader will drop in on 1947 and 1954 and learn about emerging technologies, and my favorite – how to be unladylike (chew gum, smoke, drink alone, swear or sweat).] It is a cultural commentary on what it means to be a foreigner in a strange land, language barriers and all. This is a heartbreaking romance. It is what happens when grief complicates a marriage, misunderstanding about propriety tangles it, and opportunity finally destroys it. The grief of losing a child to an avoidable accident serves as the catalyst for a downward spiral for all involved. Orchard begs the question who is the bigger betrayer, the one who builds an emotional obsession or the one whose carnal desires explode in a single act? Is emotion infidelity more of a sin than a physical one? Larry Watson is becoming one of my favorite authors.
I have read a few reviews that mention this scene, for better of for worse. I myself held my breath when Sonja went to the barn to shoot the family horse. the scene was only seconds long but I seemed to be suspended in dread forever.

Favorite lines (and there were quite a few), “You wanted stillness, but not the repose of a cadaver” (p 5), “Desperation did not enter one room of a family’s house and stayed out of others” (p 18), “Thus do our own fantasies cripple us” (p 39).

As an aside, I am sorry I read a review which mentioned Andrew Wyeth’s Helga paintings and the similarities to Watson’s Orchard. Now I cannot reconcile Sonja’s face as her own now that I see Helga in my mind’s eye.

Author fact: I am also reading Montana 1948 by Larry Watson.

Book trivia: This should be a movie.

Playlist: Nat King Cole’s “Pretend”, Eddie Fisher, “O Mein Papa”, and, “Joy to the World”.

Nancy said: Orchard is not given any special treatment by Pearl.

BookLust Twist: from More Book Lust in the chapter called “Big Ten Country: The Literary Midwest (p 21).