^Great article, Mary!
*Ex Libris/i is one of my favorite books! Wonderful collection of essays. My favorite was the one about marrying libraries.
Okay, I realize this isn’t a direct answer to the question, but who knew??
Unacknowledged children: Hmm, lack of effective birth control; the time period (i.e., no one to hold the father of the child accountable).
There’s also the descriptor “born on the wrong side of the blanket.”
I read the book, and it was a fun read, but it’s been a busy week, and I couldn’t think of much to add! It was pretty clear to me at the beginning that the painting would turn out to be an ancestor of Amanda’s, so I couldn’t really get into the mystery. And Peter lost me when he found the dead body but just walked away, confident it would all be solved and he could explain later. I didn’t believe that for a minute.
I don’t think either of these questions were answered yet:
2. It’s ironic that Robert Greene’s most immortal words are those deriding Shakespeare as “an upstart Crow” (p. 31). Can you think of any other writers who were belittled by their contemporaries but went on to achieve greater and more enduring fame?
I don’t know about “greater and more enduring fame” like Shakespeare, but there’s plenty of this. There are some examples here: Poisoned Pens: Literary Invective from Amis to Zola
http://www.amazon.com/Poisoned-Pens-Literary-Invective-Amis/dp/0711229295
And if you like that sort of thing, and like classical music, one of my favorites, Slonimsky’s Lexicon of Musical Invective:
http://www.amazon.com/Lexicon-Musical-Invective-Beethovens-Washington/dp/0295785799/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454899942&sr=1-1&keywords=lexicon+of+musical+invective
3. Consider Dr. Strayer’s “typed list of things [Peter] needed to do in order to move on with his life” (p. 7) after Amanda’s death. Can following such a list help someone recover from grief?
As someone widowed about the same length of time as Peter, I think a list is as good as anything. Whatever works! (though I would add to the list: “Read poetry.”) There’s a whole genre of grief literature (I didn’t find most of it very helpful); it’s sort of the same thing as a list. Peter’s main human contact was Amanda, and Dr. Strayer had helped him before.
Thanks for all the links, especially to the Billy Collins “Marginalia” poem, Mary! And I’m going to have to get that Penguin Bookchase game.
Penguin should give us a commission! The art world (especially recently) is also full of examples of artists who were despised. The impressionists had to have their own show because the Academy wouldn’t accept most of their paintings.
I liked Peter’s list though in the end he didn’t follow it because he was obeying orders, but because he got interested in following up on the Amanda painting. I liked that. I think we work through grief at our own pace and Peter’s pace was glacial and really needed an outside prod.
I agree that Peter just abandoning the body thinking someone would find it and confident that they wouldn’t follow up with him was … odd.
^ Yes, Peter fleeing the murder scene bothered me, too. It’s both odd and lacking in humanity, to just leave the body there, unreported. I’m sure he was terrified, but not even an anonymous call to the police?
@buenavista, thanks for the links…there are some funny quotes there! I found this when looking around for “writers who were belittled by their contemporaries”:
Thank you for sharing this – your own experience gives you a different, keener perspective than most of the rest of us on this aspect of the book.
My sentiments exactly. If this had been a selection like Seveneves or The Luminaries, I’d have been sunk, as I have a high school senior and…well, I don’t think I need to explain to this group. Let’s just say I’ve been dreaming about the FAFSA, CSS Profile and IDOC for weeks. 
I think we’re more than ready to bid adieu to The Bookman’s Tale, but in the interest of closure, I’ll offer my two cents on the remaining discussion questions.
J.K. Rowling. I don’t think I even need a link to back me up on this one. But I looked for one anyway and ta-da:
No. Moreover, it’s a missed opportunity for Peter, because looking back, he wishes that he and Amanda had talked in depth about the fact that they wouldn’t have children.
Amanda Devereaux’s letter would have provided a good prompt for that conversation.
Feel free to begin thinking about our April selection!
Suggestions
Thriller: I Am Pilgrim
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/17/books/i-am-pilgrim-by-terry-hayes.html?_r=0
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackie-k-cooper/so-far-i-am-pilgrim-is-th_b_5518631.html
Western: Paradise Sky
http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/paradise-sky
http://blog.chron.com/bookish/2015/06/review-joe-r-lansdales-breakout-epic-paradise-sky/
Probably should look back at past suggestions that just missed our pick … not tonight though, maybe tomorrow. I-)
Mary, did you ever read Fates and Furies? You said you might read it and see if you liked it enough to want to discuss it with us.
Among past suggestions, I’d still be interested in the Penelope Lively duo.
^ Still in my to-read pile. The best laid plans of mice and mary…
There was also The Stranger and The Meursault Investigation – or did one of us nix that?
I read the new Penelope Lively and wouldn’t recommend it. But I’d recommend older books of hers.
I read* Elizabeth is Missing * and thought it was fabulous, however I left my copy with my sister-in-law for her to read. It can be both hard to take and very funny as you get nearly everything from the point of view of someone with dementia.
I’d be very interested in the duo *The Stranger * and *The Meursault Investigation *.
Oh,right – me too! Almost forgot about those.
I’m still interested in both Fates and Furies and a Penelope Lively duo.
Also interested in any of these from our past list:
*Captain Blood
Tarzan of the Apes
Beau Geste
Master & Commander
Prisoner of Zenda *
Another suggestion: Hellhound on His Trail - nonfiction. Both my real life book clubs read this one. It got a strong strong thumbs-up from all - with good discussions in both groups.
I came across a couple of interesting-looking titles on the following list: http://www.bustle.com/articles/130163-17-of-january-2016s-best-books-to-fire-up-your-new-year
The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni. “Readers […] will find themselves carried along by a sturdy, rather old-fashioned thriller ramped up by some modern, ecologically themed plot twists… The plot is structured like that of a horror film, moving from one alarming event to another, and in between, maintaining a tension around the question of how much worse the situation will get… [a] peculiar, atmospheric novel… It’s become customary—the fallback consolation of the book reviewer—to say that one is eager to see what a writer will do next. But in fact that is the case here. Ultimately, what engages us in The Lightkeepers, beyond its energetic plot, is the sense of watching its author discover her ability to construct a suspenseful narrative. And we finish this novel curious to find out what sorts of stories Abby Geni will choose to tell.”—New York Times Book Review
The Kindness of Enemies Leila Aboulela."Leila Aboulela’s The Kindness of Enemies…recreates the fascinating story of the rebel of the Caucasus, Imam Samil, a 19th-century warrior who battled to defend his home against the invading Russians and united the Muslims of the region under his iconic leadership. Weaving the story of his relationship with a Georgian princess he kidnapped into a more contemporary story of mistaken terrorism, we learn much about the nature of loss, the legacy of exile, and the meaning of home at a time in our world when all three are high in our minds.”
—Mariella Forstrup, The Guardian Best Books of 2015
Also maybe this one: Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout.
Lots of good suggestions. I haven’t reviewed the titles closely, but a quick glance reminded me that PlantMom’s husband has provided her with enough readings of Patrick O’Brian to last a lifetime, so we should eliminate Master and Commander.
I just read “Fates & Furies” for my RL book club; we meet tomorrow to discuss it. I enjoyed it a lot. We’re doing “My Name is Lucy Barton” for our April selection. I would vote “no” to “Master and Commander” – one of the very few books I’ve started and couldn’t finish. (And that was just the first in the series.)
Here is what has been mentioned:
Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini.
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Beau Geste by Percival Wren.
Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope.
Hellhound on His Trail by Hampton Sides
Duet: The Meursault Investigation By Kamel Daoud (translated by John Cullen) and The Stranger by Albert Camus
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale
The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni
The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela
My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
Although a finalist last time, Elizabeth is Missing is not on the list because mathmom has read it (but it’s good to know it’s worth picking up!) Although I did add Fates and Furies, that can be removed if CBBBlinker would like to try something new. Also, Penelope Lively is not listed – I would need a recommended title (I’m not familiar enough with her to select one).
There are probably some absolute vetoes on the above list that should come off – and there also might be titles that you just thought of, which you’d like to add. Go to it!
I think if we include Penelope Lively I’d suggest one of two books.
The first would be Moon Tiger which won The Booker Prize. Here’s a short appreciation of it - not really a full review: http://www.npr.org/2011/09/26/140598095/a-lively-independent-heroine-worth-mooning-over
I also very much liked The Photograph about a man who discovers his marriage was not quite what he thought. Now that I have read the Guardian review ( http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/jan/25/featuresreviews.guardianreview14 ) it looks like it would be interesting to pair it with * Perfect Happiness*, which the reviewer describes as " practically the same book in reverse." I haven’t reread the older book in 20 years, but I know I liked it.