<p>^^^ My real-life book club book for November: The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler. I’ve not read it (and I need to get to doing so ;)) nor seen the movie.</p>
<p>By the way, SJCM, I read The Weird Sisters - on the Elaine Newton list that you posted in the spring - and liked it. :)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>But … but … but … I already have it. I g-u-e-s-s I can stall … maybe. Seriously thanks for the “heads up” - I can substitute The Hunger Games trilogy in its stead should I have spare reading time.</p>
<p>Aww “The Accidental Tourist”…love that film. I’ve read several Anne Tylers, but not that one. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it, ignatius.</p>
<p>I’ve gotten the impression that most book clubs read new books…? That would limit the choices. It’s nice to hear of a club reading an older book of definite quality.</p>
<p>I was actually working in a bookstore the year Accidental Tourist was published. My favorite novel of that year was Louise Erdrich’s “Love Medicine.” I can still recall its appearance, sitting there on the shelf, looking mysterious and beguiling.</p>
<p>SJCM – most recent reads from the “Daily Deals” include “True Detective (Nate Heller),” “House Rules: A Joe DeMarco Thriller,” and “Eyewall.” </p>
<p>Actually, it seems as if the more recent “Daily Deals” are $1.99 instead of $.99. The offering for each day shows up on my Facebook Wall because I “Liked” Amazon Kindle, but you can find them directly on the Amazon website, too.</p>
<p>Dragonmom Wrote "Looking for a good new book, but leery of the “Thriller” label.** I can’t finish books that have sexual violence as a theme but that seems to overlap into Horror and Thriller pretty often.** If someone can (without revealing too much) tell me if this book includes sexual child abuse, torture or violent sexual crimes I would appreciate the warning. Feel free to PM me if that would give awY too much.</p>
<p>I just finished Before I Go To Sleep, and can not say that there isn’t a “theme of violent sexual crime” …just giving you a head’s up.</p>
<p>I didn’t mean to mislead anybody. I just thought that the content of the book was mild compared to a lot of books and many, many films.</p>
<p>There is some violence in the story, and a fair amount of rough language, but I wouldn’t say that a “violent sexual crime” occurs. </p>
<p>I guess people’s sensitivities vary so much that we have to be really cautious. I remember years ago, when someone I knew died as a result of a gun accident, I couldn’t even watch a movie with guns or a shooting in it for quite some time.</p>
<p>^^ Good to know I’m not alone. I had planned to read it over the holiday weekend, but didn’t get to it. Now I’m going to wait till this coming weekend, so I’ll be late to the discussion.</p>
<p>Hello, everyone! It’s December 1st and time to discuss Before I Go to Sleep.</p>
<p>I had mixed feelings about the novel. Coming off of State of Wonder, I felt the writing quality of Before I Go to Sleep left a lot to be desired. I had to keep telling myself that Watson’s book is an entirely different genre and that I should approach it with different expectations. So…did Before I Go to Sleep work as a mystery, a thriller? I think it did…with reservations that we can discuss as we go. </p>
<p>For starters, here is the Reading Guide:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’ll go ahead and start with question 1. There are probably as many different answers to this question as there are posters here, but this is my take on it: </p>
<p>Although marriage certainly changes over time, losing that “strong sense of love” for one’s spouse is not normal and not inevitable. But I believe that love requires memory–that the relationship strengthens as a result of shared experience. Christine didn’t have that. But, I wondered as I read, shouldn’t she have at least retained the other piece of a loving relationship: a basic, earthy, good old-fashioned chemistry? Pheromones that complement each other? But she didn’t have that either. Christine’s lack of attraction toward Ben was my first clue that he was not who he said he was.</p>
<p>I think that Christine had a hard time feeling a connection to Ben because somewhere deep inside, her buried memory told her that this man was not her husband. She may not have retained a memory of events, but on some level, her sensory memory came through. Early in the book, I had written in my notes, “If nothing else, wouldn’t Ben’s smell be comfortingly familiar to her?” Today I found a beautiful quote that better expresses what I was trying to articulate:</p>
<p>“When nothing else subsists from the past, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered…the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls…bearing resiliently, on tiny and almost impalpable drops of their essence, the immense edifice of memory." - Marcel Proust, “The Remembrance of Things Past”</p>
<p>Hi Mary,
I felt that this book was was very fast read; the distressing tone throughout the novel compelled me to want to know the truth, and I finished it rather quickly. I feel it succeeded as a thriller, but I found, in the end, that I didn’t particularly enjoy the ride. Maybe I am growing less tolerant of thrillers!</p>
<p>I started Before I Go To Sleep Tuesday afternoon and finished last night (Wednesday) about 11:00. I read it quickly.</p>
<p>I found it unsettling, which would probably meet with the author’s approval. Before I Go to Sleep can be shelved right alongside the movie Fatal Attraction as a cautionary warning against extramarital affairs. </p>
<p>I can read mysteries (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo et al) and thrillers (The Informationist) with no problem. Before I Go to Sleep falls under psychological suspense and I just found out that - eek! - it bothers me.</p>
<p>I may be dense, but it never occurred to me that Ben was not who he said he was! Christine’s lack of any sort of memory of him was weird, but my guess was that he had abused her in some way that she couldn’t remember, and that was what had caused her to shut down.</p>
<p>I do agree that the writing was a little clunky – to an extent that occasionally bothered me. The story had such a fascinating momentum, though. To me, that was a very big compensating factor.</p>
<p>Memory is an intriguing subject. Most of us over the age of 40 probably look back on certain episodes of our lives and muse, “What could have I been thinking?” or “If I had only known then what I know now…” So in a way, we are able to relate to Christine’s dilemma, as extreme as it was.</p>
<p>i was so disappointed in this book. it seemed to be featured as a great new author with an exciting thriller. </p>
<p>none of that rang true for me.</p>
<p>i read it quickly–mostly to put myself out my misery! you did want to read it to the end, but the writer seemed to give away much of the suspense. a thriller isn’t really a thriller if you can figure out what’s going on…i read through the ending just wondering how they would tie up the ends–but not wondering what was happening.</p>
<p>i wonder how some authors can generate so much hype–yet deliver so little?</p>
<p>I agree. Any book that you can’t put down can’t be all bad, right? But in my mind it’s a book better checked out of the library than purchased for one’s permanent collection. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I appreciated that it was a thriller with far less violence than what’s out there today. I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and although its characters are a thousand times more complex and developed than those in Before I Go to Sleep, I found the violence stomach-churning, and chose not to continue with the series. (When I mentioned this to my eldest daughter, she said, “Really? I hardly noticed. Seemed pretty typical of other books.” Guess she’s not reading Pride and Prejudice these days. Hello generation gap.)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>LOL…I wrote “Fatal Attraction with genders reversed” in one of my margin notes. Because we never really get to know Christine, her affair made very little sense to me—and certainly didn’t make me like her very much. There’s no good explanation. The real Ben seemed to be a loving husband and father (and an excellent provider). Claire’s explanation for Christine’s cheating was weak to say the least, “I suppose it started not long after you had Adam. Once the initial excitement had worn off, there was a period when things were extremely tough.” Welcome to marriage, Christine. Grow up.</p>
<p>I didn’t guess everything right away; clues unfolded little by little for me. But I wasn’t entirely happy with how the novel was constructed as a thriller. I thought Watson cheated a little. There’s a difference between a red herring and just making stuff up to confuse the reader. Dr. Nash, for example, is a red herring. He is somewhat ambiguous. Was he a help or a hindrance to Christine? Were his motives pure? Was he guilty of something? It’s easy for the reader to spend (and ultimately waste) time pondering his role and get thrown off the track. And that’s a good thing; it’s how mysteries work. But I resented the fact that in an attempt to tie up the loose ends at the close of the novel, Christine’s memories of Adam’s funeral are dismissed with the explanation, “Your imagination…” That struck me as an unfair shortcut.</p>
<p>The note I wrote to myself after finishing Before I Go to Sleep was “Good beach read - not a literary work of art.” </p>
<p>I don’t know why, but the cell phone Dr. Nash gave to Christine really bothered me. How did she charge it? How did she know how to charge it? How did it never happen to ring in front of Ben?</p>
<p>See - I think less thriller than psychological suspense. When I think thriller, I think action rather than mind games. Not much action to be found in Before I Go to Sleep. </p>
<p>The reader relies on Christine for accuracy and understands from the get-go that her accuracy might be suspect. Christine knows nothing about herself other than what she gleans during the course of the day (from unreliable sources) and then records. Actually her journal entries in some instances might be nothing more than her imaginings. As it turns out, “Ben” can’t be relied on for accurate information. (I perceived a bit of Stockholm Syndrome in Chrissie’s feelings for Ben though she never thought of him as her captor.)</p>
<p>Readers can’t get a grip on Dr. Nash for the same reason: we see Dr. Nash through Chrissie’s eyes. Certainly she see things in him that lack foundation - think of her kiss.</p>
<p>The strength of any journal depends on the accuracy of the the narrator and Chrissie is damaged goods.</p>
<p>Mary … you find Adam’s funeral a shortcut. I find Mike’s death an unacceptable shortcut:
Excuse me: Did he die in the fire? Is there a body? DNA? Something? Anything? </p>
<p>Personally, I picture a sequel where Chrissie realizes (one dark and stormy night when she’s alone in the house) that Mike lives on. Again eek, eek, eek! As I’ve already said, perhaps psychological suspense might not be the best choice for me.</p>
<p>I thought it was a great suspense novel - although I was not happy with how all the pieces were wrapped up in the end. Somehow - THAT seemed a little convoluted. I think the most skillfully crafted mysteries and suspense are explained with one piece of info, which makes all the other pieces fit together. Too many - and then this happened, and this, and this - and that is why your were living with a lunatic. </p>
<p>I thought the author did a great job of creating doubt. I didn’t trust either man. I didn’t know what was wrong with Ben and I was suspicious of Dr. Nash. </p>
<p>As for not being attracted to her supposed spouse - SHE had changed so much. Part of feeling attracted to our spouses is finding ourselves attractive. When I feel like crap, I don’t feel sexy or desirable and that spills over to how I feel about my DH. I was really bothered, however, with his insistence on sex. As far as I was concerned it bordered on rape.</p>
<p>This was the perfect book to read while I was home alone. Great “put on your jammies and relax with a glass of wine” kind of book.</p>
But she didn’t have that either. Christine’s lack of attraction toward Ben was my first clue that he was not who he said he was.</p>
that - eek! - it bothers me.</p>