I think that Chris Hemsworth is too spectacularly masculine/handsome for Falk. I could see him as Luke. For Falk, I’d go with someone more cerebral like Guy Pearce or Hugo Weaving, but younger of course. Hugo Weaving would be great for Falk’s father, actually.
Laurence Fox would be a great Falk, although he is not Australian.
I guess it depends what kind of movie one envisions.
Agree Hugo Weaving type woujld be much more appropriate for Aaron.
Yes, to Mary’s post - if those kids had actually told each other the truth they would have found that backpack long ago and spared a world of trouble.
I agree that Luke needs to be spectacularly masculine/handsome. That would be one way to distract people from the deficiencies of his personality.
As our discussion winds down, this is a good concluding question:
Falk was dealing with layer upon layer of trauma, so it’s no wonder he had troubling engaging with people. The tragic death of a close friend would have been trauma enough, but on top of that he also had to deal with being the chief suspect, leaving the only home he’d ever known, suffering an estrangement from his dad, and living with the guilt of the part he’d played in the lie.
So my question is this: What happens after The Dry? Aaron has been given closure on the crime(s) and is once again accepted by the town:
Is that enough to heal Aaron or is it too late for a sea change? Do you think his character will have evolved in any way in Force of Nature? Does anyone plan to read it?
I read it. You should, too.
I really want to read the next book. One of Aaron’s issues is that his mother died when he was born. I think that clouded his relationship with his father no matter what happened. It was too bad that his father didn’t live to see his redemption in the town’s eyes.
Do you think that Grant was ever arrested?
I still trod an old path. Luke lied. At first I thought Luke lied out of friendship. Then I thought it was to hide his afternoon love-making with Gretchen. Neither seemed quite right. Luke’s seems too self-serving to lie out of concern for Aaron. And he has no reason to lie about being with Gretchen. It would have been easy enough to say they were together without going into explicit detail about what the “together” entailed. I’m now leaning toward Luke and Gretchen covering their tracks because they felt complicit in the death. They were there but did nothing to stop events, whether suicide or murder. By lying it gave one and all an out - a removal, if you will. It probably seemed like a good idea to the teens at the time. Plus they knew Aaron wasn’t guilty. (Luke had to have talked to Gretchen before approaching Aaron with the alibi. All it would have taken otherwise is for Gretchen to go “What? No. Luke was with me.” So Gretchen lied right along with Luke.)
I want to read Force of Nature.
@silverlady - Grant arrested? I don’t think so. He helped cover the crime but twenty years have passed. It would be a mess trying to prove it. Ellie’s diary contains nothing about that afternoon, of course. I could as easily have been suicide
(I wanted the mean mom in the park to get her comeuppance but no such luck.)
Just sayin’ that’s how I view it, too.
I’m glad that I had this discussion to steer me from Luke lying to protect his friend or at Gretchen’s behest toward the lie stemming from teenage guilt. The only one seeming to make it through the aftermath of lying okay seems to have been Luke.
I think Luke comes through Ellie’s death relatively unscathed because 1) he is not a deeply empathetic or sensitive person; and 2) he has convinced himself that his lie benefited Aaron. When Luke gives Falk’s number to Karen, he says:
He goes on to say, “You can trust him. He’ll help you.” I’ll at least give this to Luke: he has only kind things to say about Aaron (good, smart, trustworthy, helpful). He has probably not done any deep thinking about the nature of their friendship, the way Aaron has.
So Luke’s simplicity and his self-delusion about the lie spare him from any childhood trauma or lingering guilt. He gets the perfect girl and the beautiful family, only to lose it all most brutally — because of the murderer’s desperate need to cover up a lie. Seems sort of karmic, but the gods went overboard. Luke had his flaws, but didn’t deserve his fate.
It’s April 10th, so the floor is now open for discussion of our next selection (and of course, the current discussion can continue as well, for as long as we have things to say)!
A couple things I want to say: one of my favorite things about this book club is it scoots all over the place. We read Pride and Prejudice - a classic - and followed it with a 2017 novel by a debut author. I like when we dip into classics and equally when we choose a book by a newbie. I tried to remember past suggestions that we liked but ended up picking something else for suggestion purposes. I’m also interested in keeping up with 2018 books but other than @mathmom’s previous suggestion, I have no ideas.
The Immortalists - mentioned by @mathmom (and a 2018 book)
Pachinko or The Power - both mentioned by @Mary13
Little Fires Everywhere - suggested by (I don’t remember)
New Suggestions but both 2017 books:
*The Heart’s Invisible Furies
American War*
Anyone familiar with these on this “book club list 2017”
https://www.bookbub.com/blog/2017/12/11/best-book-club-books-2017
@ignatius, did you ever get around to reading The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley? That’s still on my list.
@SouthJerseyChessMom, the only book I’ve read on that 2017 list is The Dry. I’m open to anything, if you see a title you particularly like.
Don’t forget we can also suggest modern classics (@mathmom has me thinking about A Town Like Alice…)
No and I’d really like to read The Twelve Lives …. A friend of mine - avid reader - just gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. Add it to the list.
A Town Like Alice works also. And I forgot to add All Our Wrong Todays.
@SouthJerseyChessMom: I’ve read Artemis by Andy Weir. He wrote The Martian. I liked it but don’t want to reread it. Definitely some others on the list I’ve been eyeing and a few that don’t interest me at all. I’m not going to list more books, it’s your (+ others) turn.
A high school friend of mine was asking for suggestions for Mexican novels. Any interest in any of these? https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/mexico/articles/top-10-contemporary-mexican-novels-you-must-read/
We just read “Little Fires Everywhere” for my RL Book Club. We read “Everything I Never Told You” here, right? I really like Celeste Ng’s writing style, and found both her books to be thought provoking.
re @mathmom’s post #135: I’ve read and highly recommend The House on Mango Street.
It’s only 134 pages so would need to be paired with another book (and some might balk at the “poems and stories” narration.) Still if you haven’t read it, you should. It’s really good.
More than a few of the other books aren’t available through my library system, which is a good one. So that might be a problem.
If you’re going for a Mexican novelist, try Luis Alberto Urea: http://luisurrea.com
His latest is The House of Broken Angels. I’ve looked forward to its release.
FYI: I veto any book where the narrator is a cockroach.
I’ll be reading Artemis, but I don’t think it needs to read as part of the CC BookClub - especially since what I want to read here is books I’d never pick up otherwise. (Well not every time, but at least some of the time.) I’ve been thinking about reading Nevil Shute’s On the Beach, I suspect it’s less Australian than some of his other books and well I’m not sure how cheery about waiting around to be killed by nuclear fallout can be.
Feeling like I should submit an idea …
Recently, Goodreads friend read this and raved.
“The Flight Attendant” Chris Bohjalian