By Joanne Trollope
This book is a modern version of the Jane Austen novel of the same name.
I thought the author did quite a good job of providing a modern version of the tale. The story is set in the present. However, the young girls and their mother still find themselves thrown out of their house upon the death of their father/husband. The family had been living with an elderly family member, he bequeathed the house to the father's step son, who the family has had no contact with. The man supposedly promised his father that he would after his mother and sisters, at the father's deathbed. However, his scheming wife has other plans and convinces him that they must leave.
A distant relative offers them a small cottage. Not a quaint old English cottage but a recently built, but small one, on his estate.
One of the girls, Elinor, falls in love with her stepbrother's brother-in-law much to the chagrin of the girl's sister in law who is totally against the relationship. She and her mother , both of whom are very concerned with wealth and staus, have much better plans for the young man. This does not include marrying a poor girl of no social standing.
Elinor, the only sensible one jn the familh tries to take his abandonment stoically. She realizes they have little money and sets out to find a job to have some income for the family.
Here sister, Marianne, suffers from severe asthma, as did her father. Marianne is rescued when she is having a severe attack by a handsome young man driving an Astin Martin sportscar. She falls for this handsome young man, heir to a neighbouring estate. He later breaks her heart by marrying someone else. This ruins her health and sanity. The family member who has invited the mother and girls to live on his estate has a male friend who spends a lot of time at his property. This man takes an interest in Marianne but she isn't interested in him. He is very nice and kind but the family considers him to old and boring to think of as a potential suitor.
In the end Elinor's beau decides to go against his mother's wishes and follow his heart. He proposes to Elinor and she accepts. This means he will likely be written out of his mother's will but he is convinced they will do okay. Elinor convinces him to go and visit his mother to explain his decision. He does. and the mother relents and gives them some money.
The other sister, Marianne decides that she can accept the offer of marriage from the boring older man. She realizes he is kind and she likes his company. He too suffered from an unfulfilled love. The book shows that while some things have changed since Austen's time, some things--young love, treachery, romance still exist today. A fun read.
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Monday, 17 February 2014
The Humans
By Matt Haig
This book was a good contrast to Cockroach. It is the story of an alien who comes to earth because a mathematician has solved a mathematical proof that has potential to change the earth. He murders the husband and takes over in his body or at least a replica of his body. He has been sent to earth to destroy any evidence of the discovery of the proof plus killl thd man's wife and son.
The alien comes from a world where there are no families, no relationships, no fear. Everything is done based on rational thought. They have great techological knowledge - can heal illness, travel vast distances through space.
However, as he is new to human habits he doesn't know that he needs to be wearing clothes. When he is found wandering around nude he is taken to a psych ward. The assumption is that he has had a mental breakdown from overwork.
He meets the mathematician's wife and son, both of whom are not fond of him. He finds out that they considered the mathematician totally self-absorbed and devoted only to his career. He tries to talk to them to find out what he did wrong. The wife is quite forthcoming, the son not so much.
He finds out that the mathematician had confided the news to one of his colleagues so the alien visits the person and kills him (it appears to be a heart attack). However, despite urgings from his leaders he finds he cannot bring himself to kill the wife or the son. In fact, he brings the son back to life, using his healing powers, when the boy commits suicide.
He is getting a lot of grief from his superiors and finally tells them to take away his powers and let him remain as a human. He does this without really thinking of the full consequences of this decision. It is painful being human but he is able to start to mend the rifts in ths family. However, when he confides to the wife that he has had sex with one of his students (not realizing that it is wrong to do this) the wife kicks him out.
He is going to leave but disovers another alien has arrived to carry out the job he was supposed to do and he hurries back to the house to protect "his" family. When the son arrives home he sees that there are two men that look like his father in the house. The second alien tries to kill him but the first alien gets the son to kill the second alien. Before the alien dies he makes the second alien tell the bosses that he has completed his mission -- so that the family will not longer be hunted. They bury the rapidly deteriorating remains of the alien (he is reverting to his alien form) in the backyard. He tells the son and wife the truth about being an alien and his mission and how he gave up everything for them. The wife cannot deal with his deceit and tells him to leave.
He finds a job in California but finds he misses the wife and boy. A year later he travels back to Cambridge to deliver a lecture. He meets the son and the family dog whom he really likes. Theson tells him that the wife misses him and he should come see her.
The message of the story sems to be that love is the only thing that saves us from the pain of being human. But that love can make the pain worth it. This was a funny, tender story. Obviously it had a few holes, for e.g. the son and wife didn't seem to surprised at his apparent change of personality... I guess they accepted it as part of the outcome of the breakdown It was a good light read, and good for some laughs..
This book was a good contrast to Cockroach. It is the story of an alien who comes to earth because a mathematician has solved a mathematical proof that has potential to change the earth. He murders the husband and takes over in his body or at least a replica of his body. He has been sent to earth to destroy any evidence of the discovery of the proof plus killl thd man's wife and son.
The alien comes from a world where there are no families, no relationships, no fear. Everything is done based on rational thought. They have great techological knowledge - can heal illness, travel vast distances through space.
However, as he is new to human habits he doesn't know that he needs to be wearing clothes. When he is found wandering around nude he is taken to a psych ward. The assumption is that he has had a mental breakdown from overwork.
He meets the mathematician's wife and son, both of whom are not fond of him. He finds out that they considered the mathematician totally self-absorbed and devoted only to his career. He tries to talk to them to find out what he did wrong. The wife is quite forthcoming, the son not so much.
He finds out that the mathematician had confided the news to one of his colleagues so the alien visits the person and kills him (it appears to be a heart attack). However, despite urgings from his leaders he finds he cannot bring himself to kill the wife or the son. In fact, he brings the son back to life, using his healing powers, when the boy commits suicide.
He is getting a lot of grief from his superiors and finally tells them to take away his powers and let him remain as a human. He does this without really thinking of the full consequences of this decision. It is painful being human but he is able to start to mend the rifts in ths family. However, when he confides to the wife that he has had sex with one of his students (not realizing that it is wrong to do this) the wife kicks him out.
He is going to leave but disovers another alien has arrived to carry out the job he was supposed to do and he hurries back to the house to protect "his" family. When the son arrives home he sees that there are two men that look like his father in the house. The second alien tries to kill him but the first alien gets the son to kill the second alien. Before the alien dies he makes the second alien tell the bosses that he has completed his mission -- so that the family will not longer be hunted. They bury the rapidly deteriorating remains of the alien (he is reverting to his alien form) in the backyard. He tells the son and wife the truth about being an alien and his mission and how he gave up everything for them. The wife cannot deal with his deceit and tells him to leave.
He finds a job in California but finds he misses the wife and boy. A year later he travels back to Cambridge to deliver a lecture. He meets the son and the family dog whom he really likes. Theson tells him that the wife misses him and he should come see her.
The message of the story sems to be that love is the only thing that saves us from the pain of being human. But that love can make the pain worth it. This was a funny, tender story. Obviously it had a few holes, for e.g. the son and wife didn't seem to surprised at his apparent change of personality... I guess they accepted it as part of the outcome of the breakdown It was a good light read, and good for some laughs..
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Cockroach
by Rawi Hage
This is the second book I have read by him. I enjoyed his first book De Niro's game.
Hage is a masterful writer, he has exquisite language in his writing. This book is about an immigrant to Canada, from a war-torn country, who tried to commit suicide and is having to see a psychiatriast as a result.
He is living on welfare and eaking out a living by working in restaurant's part time. He is often hungry and breaks into people's homes to steal food and other things. He even breaks into his psychiatrist's house and takes ehr slippers.
He obviously has mental problems, while he has an ongoing battle with the cockroaches in his apartment he sees himself as a cockroach and often visualizes or describes himself as crawling down sewers, into basements etc. At one point he imagines a humansize cockroach talking to him in his aparment.
He lusts after women but seems to dislike other people he encounters. As the story goes on we learn that his parents fought, his daughter married young to a man who beat her constantly. The young man tries to kill his brother in law but when he has the chance he doesn't do it. He escapes his country instead. He comes to Canada and learns that there is corrupton here too. Later his sister is killed by her husband. He does end up killing a man who was the jailer and rapist (in Iran) of a woman he has a relationshiup with. So, he will have to disappear like a cockroach. But as the Jehovah's witnesses tell him, at the end of the world only the cockroaches and God's chosen will survive...
The book obviously reflects ideas of Kafka and Dostoevsky (notes from underground). While Hage writes beautifully and with passion, we really feel the anxiety and madness of the main character, I think you set yourself up for criticisim when you take on the ideas of literary giants. It has been a long time since I have read Kafka or Dostoyevsky but I don't think this quite measures up to either of them.
I think I had hoped that the character would find some redemption but instead he just becomes part of the violence he tried to leave behind. It was a sad book but certainly worth reading. However, I find it a surprising choice for Canada Reads this year, the theme of which I thought was supposed to be change... I don't really see that this character changed much.... except for the worse.
This is the second book I have read by him. I enjoyed his first book De Niro's game.
Hage is a masterful writer, he has exquisite language in his writing. This book is about an immigrant to Canada, from a war-torn country, who tried to commit suicide and is having to see a psychiatriast as a result.
He is living on welfare and eaking out a living by working in restaurant's part time. He is often hungry and breaks into people's homes to steal food and other things. He even breaks into his psychiatrist's house and takes ehr slippers.
He obviously has mental problems, while he has an ongoing battle with the cockroaches in his apartment he sees himself as a cockroach and often visualizes or describes himself as crawling down sewers, into basements etc. At one point he imagines a humansize cockroach talking to him in his aparment.
He lusts after women but seems to dislike other people he encounters. As the story goes on we learn that his parents fought, his daughter married young to a man who beat her constantly. The young man tries to kill his brother in law but when he has the chance he doesn't do it. He escapes his country instead. He comes to Canada and learns that there is corrupton here too. Later his sister is killed by her husband. He does end up killing a man who was the jailer and rapist (in Iran) of a woman he has a relationshiup with. So, he will have to disappear like a cockroach. But as the Jehovah's witnesses tell him, at the end of the world only the cockroaches and God's chosen will survive...
The book obviously reflects ideas of Kafka and Dostoevsky (notes from underground). While Hage writes beautifully and with passion, we really feel the anxiety and madness of the main character, I think you set yourself up for criticisim when you take on the ideas of literary giants. It has been a long time since I have read Kafka or Dostoyevsky but I don't think this quite measures up to either of them.
I think I had hoped that the character would find some redemption but instead he just becomes part of the violence he tried to leave behind. It was a sad book but certainly worth reading. However, I find it a surprising choice for Canada Reads this year, the theme of which I thought was supposed to be change... I don't really see that this character changed much.... except for the worse.
Monday, 10 February 2014
Goldfinch
by Donna Tartt
This is another book that has received a lot of rave reviews. In this case the book lived up to my expectations.
The story starts with an explosion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A young boy, Theo, and his mother are visiting the gallery. The boy's father, a drunk who beat the mother, had abandoned them several years before. The boy and his mother have a very close relationship. She is very impressed with a painting of a Goldfinch, chained to a perch by a Dutch Master.
Just prior to the explosion his mother leaves him to go have another look at a particular painting, she tells him to go to the gift shop and she will meet him there. However, Theo has been watching a young girl who is accompanied by an older man. He has been following them rather than going to the gift shop.
When the explosion occurs Theo sees dead bodies and destruction everywhere. However, he finds the old man still alive. The old man tells him to take the painting of the goldfinch and also gives him a ring. He also mentions a name, that sounds like a business name. Theo stays with the old man until he dies, then he scoops up the painting and manages to wander his way through some back rooms in the gallery and get outside. He stumbles home and waits for his mother to meet him there (their agreed upon plan should they get separated at any tiime). But his mother does not return.
After a short time Theo recalls the name that the old man told him and goes to the address. He is greeted at the door by a man who was the business partner of the old man. They have an antiques/restoration business. He is delighted to meet the boy and get the old man's ring back. The man invites him in and tells the boy that they young girl survived the explosion but was badly hurt, including some brain damage.
Eventually children's services people come to collect the boy. His grandparents are contacted but claim that they are too ill to care for him. No one knows how to contact his father. The boy contacts a childhood friend of his, from a wealthy family, and they agree to care for him in the short term. The friend's family is very happy to have him staying with them, the boy's brother and sister aren't so happy about it. The father of the family has had some mental health issues, the mother is a socialite and do-gooder, but really seems to care for the welfare of her young guest. The father is a sailing fanatic and wants his son (the boy's friend) to learn to sail, the boy is terrified of sailing.
Theo is quite happy living with this wealthy family. However one day he returns to their apartment to find his father sitting waiting for him. Theo doesn't want to go with him, but the father takes him to Las Vegas to live with him, his girlfriend and their dog (which they frequently neglect). The boy is very unhappy living with them, not only do they negelct the dog, they neglect him, leaving him alone with no food in the house. He meets a Russian boy in his school. The boy's father is an engineer who also isn't a good parent and who gets drunk and beats him on occasion. The Russian boy is streetwise and they become friends, steal food and get involved with drugs. The Russian boy is quite manic. He calls Theo "Popper" because of his Harry Potter glasses. Sadly, Theo's father seems to have a better relationship with Boris than he does with Theo.
Theo's father is a gambler and has highs and lows. One day a man arrives at the door asking for his father. He tells Theo to tell his father that he will be back to collect on the father's bad debts. The father tries to get the boy to free money from an education fund his mother had set up for him. The father claims it is to help him start a restaurant. He is lying, he wants the money to settle his debts. However, the lawyer who handles his fund tells Theo he can't just take money out, it has to go to an educational institution. He also warns him that someone had tried to get money from the fund previously. Theo is furious at his father for trying to steal his education funds.
Shortly thereafter Theo's "stepmother" arrives home in tears telling him that his father has been killed in a car accident, it seems he was leaving town (without them). Theo doesn't want to stay with the stepmother but doesn't know what to do. He decides to return to New York. Before he goes he takes some money from the house, some drugs and the dog and the goldfinch painting he took from the art gallery.
When he arrives in New York he is desperate and decides to go to visit the partner of the old man. This gentleman welcomes him. The boy contacts the lawyer who was handling his education fund and it is agreed that the older man can be his temporary guardian. Theo helps the man with some of his restoration work. But he knows he needs to complete schooling so he works hard to get an early admission to college and completes his studies
When he is done he returns to New York and eventually becomes the informal business parter, running the store for the man, while he the old man works on restoration work in the basement. Theo realizes the business is having financial difficulties as the old man would rather restore things than run the business. Theo starts running the store and conducts some fraudulent sales to help the business recover financially.
One day a former client accuses Theo of having sold him a fake. Theo offers to buy the item back but the man threatens to destroy Theo and his business partner. Later the man returns to say he knows that Theo has the Goldfinch painting and he wants it, or else. The boy is to attached to the painting to want to give it up, but he does feel guilty keeping it. How could this man get this info? This was not clear to me.
Theo evenutally confides what he has done regarding fraudulent sales to his business partner. The man is sad and shocked and insists that he must contact all clients he has wronged and reimburse them. Theo doesn't tell his partner the full extent of his crimes.
Why did he steal the painting? He did it because the old man who he comforted in the museum told him to do it. Why did he keep it?
"The painting had made me feel less mortal, less ordinary. It was support and vindication... my whole life was balanced atop a secret that might at any moment blow apart".
Theo is tormented by memories of the explosion, the young girl is likewise tormented. She has been cared for by an aunt and later sent to a school in Europe for "damanged" people. He occasionally meets her when she comes to New York. He is in love with her. But she is living in England and engaged to another man.
Theo eventually contacts the rich foster family. He is shocked to learn that the father of the family and his friend died in a boating accident. The father had had a nervous breakdown and was staying at a cottage to recover. He was manic one day and his son went out with him sailing. A storm arose and they drowned. The family is glad to renew acquaintance with him. The oldest brother is still a bum, the mother is a wreck, barely leaving her room. The boy eventually realizing he can never have the girl he really loves, falls into an engagement with the daughter in the family. She tells him they will make a good couple, but he hates her socialite lifestyle.
He contintes to use drugs, a holdover from his time in Las Vegas and his friendship with the Russian boy. One day he is walking down the street and hears someone call his name. It is his Russian firend, Boris. Boris.seems to have a lot of money and be involved with some illegal activities. Boris admits that he actually stole the goldfinch painting from him and that what he has wrapped and in storage is just a textbook.
The painting has now become a pawn among some bad dudes. Boris convices him to go to Amsterdam, assuring him they will be able to get the painting back easily.
Things don't go as planned, Theo ends up killing two people in an attack and then hiding out, ill, in an Amsterdam hotel. He doesn't have his passport (Boris had it) so he can't leave the country. He contemplates suicide. However, eventually the ever optimisitic, fast-talking Boris arrives with a bag of money for him. Boris tells him that the money is his share of the reward money. Boris explainds that he and his colleagues had found where the painting was and alerted the authorities of the location. The goldfinch and several other stolen artworks were found there. As a result of reporting on the house they were entitled to a sizeable reward. Theo's share of the reward money allows him to travel around the world to meet clients he has wronged and reimburse them.
This was a long story but a fascinating story. The author did an incredible job of portaying all the characters, the passion, the despair. Boris, the Russian, is an especially colourful character. The author really portrayed this survivor, fast-talking, conman with humour and breathtaking detail.
The boy and girl in this book suffered a major trauma, like the character in the Vasquez book, but I felt more empathy for these characters and their ongoing trauma seemed more understandable than that of the Vasquez character.
This was a great book! It kept my interest throughout. Even though some of the characters and story line were really fantastic they were believable.
This is another book that has received a lot of rave reviews. In this case the book lived up to my expectations.
The story starts with an explosion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A young boy, Theo, and his mother are visiting the gallery. The boy's father, a drunk who beat the mother, had abandoned them several years before. The boy and his mother have a very close relationship. She is very impressed with a painting of a Goldfinch, chained to a perch by a Dutch Master.
Just prior to the explosion his mother leaves him to go have another look at a particular painting, she tells him to go to the gift shop and she will meet him there. However, Theo has been watching a young girl who is accompanied by an older man. He has been following them rather than going to the gift shop.
When the explosion occurs Theo sees dead bodies and destruction everywhere. However, he finds the old man still alive. The old man tells him to take the painting of the goldfinch and also gives him a ring. He also mentions a name, that sounds like a business name. Theo stays with the old man until he dies, then he scoops up the painting and manages to wander his way through some back rooms in the gallery and get outside. He stumbles home and waits for his mother to meet him there (their agreed upon plan should they get separated at any tiime). But his mother does not return.
After a short time Theo recalls the name that the old man told him and goes to the address. He is greeted at the door by a man who was the business partner of the old man. They have an antiques/restoration business. He is delighted to meet the boy and get the old man's ring back. The man invites him in and tells the boy that they young girl survived the explosion but was badly hurt, including some brain damage.
Eventually children's services people come to collect the boy. His grandparents are contacted but claim that they are too ill to care for him. No one knows how to contact his father. The boy contacts a childhood friend of his, from a wealthy family, and they agree to care for him in the short term. The friend's family is very happy to have him staying with them, the boy's brother and sister aren't so happy about it. The father of the family has had some mental health issues, the mother is a socialite and do-gooder, but really seems to care for the welfare of her young guest. The father is a sailing fanatic and wants his son (the boy's friend) to learn to sail, the boy is terrified of sailing.
Theo is quite happy living with this wealthy family. However one day he returns to their apartment to find his father sitting waiting for him. Theo doesn't want to go with him, but the father takes him to Las Vegas to live with him, his girlfriend and their dog (which they frequently neglect). The boy is very unhappy living with them, not only do they negelct the dog, they neglect him, leaving him alone with no food in the house. He meets a Russian boy in his school. The boy's father is an engineer who also isn't a good parent and who gets drunk and beats him on occasion. The Russian boy is streetwise and they become friends, steal food and get involved with drugs. The Russian boy is quite manic. He calls Theo "Popper" because of his Harry Potter glasses. Sadly, Theo's father seems to have a better relationship with Boris than he does with Theo.
Theo's father is a gambler and has highs and lows. One day a man arrives at the door asking for his father. He tells Theo to tell his father that he will be back to collect on the father's bad debts. The father tries to get the boy to free money from an education fund his mother had set up for him. The father claims it is to help him start a restaurant. He is lying, he wants the money to settle his debts. However, the lawyer who handles his fund tells Theo he can't just take money out, it has to go to an educational institution. He also warns him that someone had tried to get money from the fund previously. Theo is furious at his father for trying to steal his education funds.
Shortly thereafter Theo's "stepmother" arrives home in tears telling him that his father has been killed in a car accident, it seems he was leaving town (without them). Theo doesn't want to stay with the stepmother but doesn't know what to do. He decides to return to New York. Before he goes he takes some money from the house, some drugs and the dog and the goldfinch painting he took from the art gallery.
When he arrives in New York he is desperate and decides to go to visit the partner of the old man. This gentleman welcomes him. The boy contacts the lawyer who was handling his education fund and it is agreed that the older man can be his temporary guardian. Theo helps the man with some of his restoration work. But he knows he needs to complete schooling so he works hard to get an early admission to college and completes his studies
When he is done he returns to New York and eventually becomes the informal business parter, running the store for the man, while he the old man works on restoration work in the basement. Theo realizes the business is having financial difficulties as the old man would rather restore things than run the business. Theo starts running the store and conducts some fraudulent sales to help the business recover financially.
One day a former client accuses Theo of having sold him a fake. Theo offers to buy the item back but the man threatens to destroy Theo and his business partner. Later the man returns to say he knows that Theo has the Goldfinch painting and he wants it, or else. The boy is to attached to the painting to want to give it up, but he does feel guilty keeping it. How could this man get this info? This was not clear to me.
Theo evenutally confides what he has done regarding fraudulent sales to his business partner. The man is sad and shocked and insists that he must contact all clients he has wronged and reimburse them. Theo doesn't tell his partner the full extent of his crimes.
Why did he steal the painting? He did it because the old man who he comforted in the museum told him to do it. Why did he keep it?
"The painting had made me feel less mortal, less ordinary. It was support and vindication... my whole life was balanced atop a secret that might at any moment blow apart".
Theo is tormented by memories of the explosion, the young girl is likewise tormented. She has been cared for by an aunt and later sent to a school in Europe for "damanged" people. He occasionally meets her when she comes to New York. He is in love with her. But she is living in England and engaged to another man.
Theo eventually contacts the rich foster family. He is shocked to learn that the father of the family and his friend died in a boating accident. The father had had a nervous breakdown and was staying at a cottage to recover. He was manic one day and his son went out with him sailing. A storm arose and they drowned. The family is glad to renew acquaintance with him. The oldest brother is still a bum, the mother is a wreck, barely leaving her room. The boy eventually realizing he can never have the girl he really loves, falls into an engagement with the daughter in the family. She tells him they will make a good couple, but he hates her socialite lifestyle.
He contintes to use drugs, a holdover from his time in Las Vegas and his friendship with the Russian boy. One day he is walking down the street and hears someone call his name. It is his Russian firend, Boris. Boris.seems to have a lot of money and be involved with some illegal activities. Boris admits that he actually stole the goldfinch painting from him and that what he has wrapped and in storage is just a textbook.
The painting has now become a pawn among some bad dudes. Boris convices him to go to Amsterdam, assuring him they will be able to get the painting back easily.
Things don't go as planned, Theo ends up killing two people in an attack and then hiding out, ill, in an Amsterdam hotel. He doesn't have his passport (Boris had it) so he can't leave the country. He contemplates suicide. However, eventually the ever optimisitic, fast-talking Boris arrives with a bag of money for him. Boris tells him that the money is his share of the reward money. Boris explainds that he and his colleagues had found where the painting was and alerted the authorities of the location. The goldfinch and several other stolen artworks were found there. As a result of reporting on the house they were entitled to a sizeable reward. Theo's share of the reward money allows him to travel around the world to meet clients he has wronged and reimburse them.
This was a long story but a fascinating story. The author did an incredible job of portaying all the characters, the passion, the despair. Boris, the Russian, is an especially colourful character. The author really portrayed this survivor, fast-talking, conman with humour and breathtaking detail.
The boy and girl in this book suffered a major trauma, like the character in the Vasquez book, but I felt more empathy for these characters and their ongoing trauma seemed more understandable than that of the Vasquez character.
This was a great book! It kept my interest throughout. Even though some of the characters and story line were really fantastic they were believable.
The Sound of Things Falling
by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
I have heard a lot of praise for this author so was looking forward to reading this book.
The story is about a lawyer who likes to play pool. The main character enjoys playing pool with one particular man. It is suggested that this man had only recently been released from prison, but the law doesn't really do anything to ask the man to reveal anything about his past. They become casual friends. The man tells him that he was estranged from his wife but that she is coming to see him. He hopes they will be able to reconcile.
Then, one day the man shows him a cassettte tape and asks where he can play it. The lawyer takes him to a place where he can use a cassette player. The lawyer watches as the man is listening to the cassette and sees that he is crying. He averts his gaze so as to not embarass the man, but when he looks for him again the man is gone. The lawyer rushes out onto the street and eventually catches up with the man. As he does a motorcycle starts up on the street and zooms past them shooting at the lawyer's friend. The friend is killed and the lawyer is badly wounded.
The lawyer is devastated by the attack. He takes a long time to recover. He seems to be suffering from post traumatic stress. He wants to know why this has happened to him, and to his friend. What did the man do to get people to murder him?
The man has an affair with one of his students/former students. She becomes pregnant and they start living together. When the child is born the man loves his child but his wife is frustrated by his inability to let go of the attack.
The lawyer finds out that the dead man was flying drugs and got caught, that is why he was imprisoned. His wife was an American Girl who had come to the country to do U.S. Government aid work and had decided to stay. The man was brought into the drug trade by one of the woman's Amerian colleagues.
He then learns that the man's wife was killed in a plane crash on the way to visit him. The cassette the dead man was listening to was the cockpit record from the plane crash that killed his wife.
The lawyer travels out into the country to meet the daughter of the dead man. She is living on land that her father had bought with money from his drug running. She tells him that her mother had told her that her father was dead. The man is so enthralled with her story that he doesn't bother to tell his wife where he is or for how long. He eventually calls his wife and she is furious that he has not thought to call her. She has been worried about him. The man doesn't really apologize. When he returns home he finds his wife and child gone.
From the many positive comments I had heard about this author I had expected the book to be great, but I have to say I was disappointed. It seemed to be much ado about nothing. I have never been a victim of a random attack, so I don't know how I would react. However, it just seemed that this character's reaction was way beyond normal. Many people have tragic things happen to them and seem to be able to pick themselves up and carry on eventually. I just couldn't accept the lawyer's inability to recover and his obsession with the dead man and his story. He seemed somewhat of a character from a Dostoevsky story. - author of his own demise through obessions/inaction.
I have heard a lot of praise for this author so was looking forward to reading this book.
The story is about a lawyer who likes to play pool. The main character enjoys playing pool with one particular man. It is suggested that this man had only recently been released from prison, but the law doesn't really do anything to ask the man to reveal anything about his past. They become casual friends. The man tells him that he was estranged from his wife but that she is coming to see him. He hopes they will be able to reconcile.
Then, one day the man shows him a cassettte tape and asks where he can play it. The lawyer takes him to a place where he can use a cassette player. The lawyer watches as the man is listening to the cassette and sees that he is crying. He averts his gaze so as to not embarass the man, but when he looks for him again the man is gone. The lawyer rushes out onto the street and eventually catches up with the man. As he does a motorcycle starts up on the street and zooms past them shooting at the lawyer's friend. The friend is killed and the lawyer is badly wounded.
The lawyer is devastated by the attack. He takes a long time to recover. He seems to be suffering from post traumatic stress. He wants to know why this has happened to him, and to his friend. What did the man do to get people to murder him?
The man has an affair with one of his students/former students. She becomes pregnant and they start living together. When the child is born the man loves his child but his wife is frustrated by his inability to let go of the attack.
The lawyer finds out that the dead man was flying drugs and got caught, that is why he was imprisoned. His wife was an American Girl who had come to the country to do U.S. Government aid work and had decided to stay. The man was brought into the drug trade by one of the woman's Amerian colleagues.
He then learns that the man's wife was killed in a plane crash on the way to visit him. The cassette the dead man was listening to was the cockpit record from the plane crash that killed his wife.
The lawyer travels out into the country to meet the daughter of the dead man. She is living on land that her father had bought with money from his drug running. She tells him that her mother had told her that her father was dead. The man is so enthralled with her story that he doesn't bother to tell his wife where he is or for how long. He eventually calls his wife and she is furious that he has not thought to call her. She has been worried about him. The man doesn't really apologize. When he returns home he finds his wife and child gone.
From the many positive comments I had heard about this author I had expected the book to be great, but I have to say I was disappointed. It seemed to be much ado about nothing. I have never been a victim of a random attack, so I don't know how I would react. However, it just seemed that this character's reaction was way beyond normal. Many people have tragic things happen to them and seem to be able to pick themselves up and carry on eventually. I just couldn't accept the lawyer's inability to recover and his obsession with the dead man and his story. He seemed somewhat of a character from a Dostoevsky story. - author of his own demise through obessions/inaction.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
by Neil Gaiman,
This is the story of a young boy who inadvertently gets involved with some otherworldly figures. His family is having some financial difficulties. A border is found dead in the family's car. The young boy is befriended by a young girl who lives on a nearby farm. The girl lives with her mother and grandmother. They seem quite peculiar, making reference to things that heappend a long time ago, as if they had been there. The girl tells him that the pond on the farm is really an ocean. He is sceptical. She takes him along to confront the evil forces that were involved with the death of his border. They meet a fantastic creature who is threatening them. The girl warns the boy to not let go of her hand but he accidentally lets go. A bit later he feels a pain in his body/foot.
They get away from the creature but when the boy gets home he finds he has a cut in his foot and that there is a worm in it. He tries to pull the worm out and thinks he got it all, but he didn't. The creature they were confronting has been brought into the present through the boy's body.
Soon a woman arrives in the family home. She is introduced as a housekeeper/nanny for the children. The woman threatens the young boy but has the rest of the family wrapped around her finger. The woman seduces the boy's father and turns the father against him so that his father almost drowns him in the bathtub while punishing him.
The woman tells the boy if he tries to leave his yard she will know but he manages to get away to the farm to get help from the young girl. The girl helps him overcome the evil but at the cost of her own life.
I am not usually a fan of fantasy. However, this book received a lot of praise. I did find it an interesting story. Gaiman does a great job of representing childhood fears and terror and demons and also the friendships that can develop between children.. The story and the descriptions of the confrontations with the evil forces were very dramatic and fear enducing. The plot line with family members turning on the boy were reminiscent of a good fairy tale. It was an interesting, memorable and enjoyable tale.
This is the story of a young boy who inadvertently gets involved with some otherworldly figures. His family is having some financial difficulties. A border is found dead in the family's car. The young boy is befriended by a young girl who lives on a nearby farm. The girl lives with her mother and grandmother. They seem quite peculiar, making reference to things that heappend a long time ago, as if they had been there. The girl tells him that the pond on the farm is really an ocean. He is sceptical. She takes him along to confront the evil forces that were involved with the death of his border. They meet a fantastic creature who is threatening them. The girl warns the boy to not let go of her hand but he accidentally lets go. A bit later he feels a pain in his body/foot.
They get away from the creature but when the boy gets home he finds he has a cut in his foot and that there is a worm in it. He tries to pull the worm out and thinks he got it all, but he didn't. The creature they were confronting has been brought into the present through the boy's body.
Soon a woman arrives in the family home. She is introduced as a housekeeper/nanny for the children. The woman threatens the young boy but has the rest of the family wrapped around her finger. The woman seduces the boy's father and turns the father against him so that his father almost drowns him in the bathtub while punishing him.
The woman tells the boy if he tries to leave his yard she will know but he manages to get away to the farm to get help from the young girl. The girl helps him overcome the evil but at the cost of her own life.
I am not usually a fan of fantasy. However, this book received a lot of praise. I did find it an interesting story. Gaiman does a great job of representing childhood fears and terror and demons and also the friendships that can develop between children.. The story and the descriptions of the confrontations with the evil forces were very dramatic and fear enducing. The plot line with family members turning on the boy were reminiscent of a good fairy tale. It was an interesting, memorable and enjoyable tale.
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