I thoroughly enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant. Just finished it on audio. The story surprised me, as it unfolded, and I was hooked. Agreed about laughing and crying.
I own Spinning Silver and still haven’t read it, so that’s a thumbs up from me. I haven’t read either Clock Dance or Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, so both of those are good, too.
I would be up for a good memoir or biography too. Nothing too tragic. Uplifting & interesting would be nice.
Sally Field’s memoir was just published, called In Pieces.
Popping in to say hi! I’m on chapter 4, but it’s a quick read, as many have said (I also got distracted reading Fear by Bob Woodward … not uplifting in the least).
I enjoyed Eleanor Oliphant a great deal, and there is much about it that is heartwarming! Without giving too much away, may I caution that it also delves into some very dark places.
I also had a lot of fun with *The Nix/i and can recommend it for those who have patience with a big grab-bag of a book (600-plus pages, or 21 hours on audio)-- not sure it should be a CC book club choice, but here’s a link to the Washington Post review, if anyone’s curious:
Oh … I’ve wanted to read The Nix. CC Book Club would get me to do so - finally.
I don’t think I actually suggested Penelope Lively’s most recent short story collection, but I did like it very much. Highly recommend if you are looking for something to read. I would reread it, if people wanted it. I see she has a new memoirish book: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/oct/29/life-in-the-garden-review-penelope-lively-green-fingers-silver-trowels I’ll read anything she writes, so I’ll be reading it no matter what.
That was a fun review of The Nix. Sounds a bit daunting, but I am game!
^ I’d be up for The Nix, too (but then I’m up for anything). Here’s what we have so far:
The Nix by Nathan Hill
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
In Pieces by Sally Field
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively
Additions? Subtractions?
Can I veto Sally Field memoir? Really have zippo interest in it.
Just finished the book. Found it pretty blah. Started off strong then lost me with mysticism and odd plot twists and poorly defined and unsympathetic characters.
I found the way the siblings obsessed about the family deaths just so depressing and debilitating for them. It made them self-absorbed and uninteresting to me as a reader.
Raj summed it up well on page 165, I thought:
Did Klara want the fortune teller to be right, or was she so mentally ill that she felt she had to fulfill the prophesy?
^didn’t Chloe Benjamin do a skillful job of making the reader wonder about Klara’s death and if the fortune teller was right.
The second sibling death was pivotal, setting the stage for the next two.
In interviews Benjamin was asked if the fortune teller had these gifts or it was self fulfilling prophesy and I recall she wasn’t sure herself.
The fortune teller proved correct in either case, right ?
I actually wondered about the bizarre Eddie O Donahue appearance at two of the deaths and wondered if he was somehow part of the whole scheme. This was incorrect, of course, but I had some moments wondering about him.
Regarding “Clock Dance” I’m a bit concerned there won’t be much to discuss. If we wanted an Anne Tyler which may be better for discussion, we could read " Ladder of years" -
It occurs to me that there are a lot of similarities between The Nix and The Heart’s Invisible Furies, so if we’re going to consider one, we might consider the other again, too.
They’re both lonnnng books, Nix longer. Both have a mother/son drama at the center. Both have a comic touch, Nix more so. Both span the decades and get bogged down sometimes, with rewards for the patient reader. I would say Furies is more artfully written, and darker.
Eleanor Oliphant is funnier and shorter and more focused. It would seem like a breath of fresh air for those wanting that.
Also, I have never read Penelope Lively and would be happy to be introduced to her.
To me Klara believed the fortune teller to be right, as opposed to wanting her to be right. Klara watches Simon die on his death date; even if Klara didn’t lean toward magic (and she does), Simon’s death’s bound to have given her pause. So if she believes it is going to happen that night, taking her life seems preferable than having it happen on stage. I would have made the same choice given public vs. private. The key seems to be a solid belief that those are the two choices.
And look what @garland just posted on the Best Books thread:
@doschicos, thanks for the Raj quote. It pinpointed what bothered me about the Gold siblings. Raj’s own family story is as bad or worse than Klara’s, but she isn’t attuned to any of that because as Raj tells her, “You don’t have space in your head for anyone’s problems but yours.” That is the case with all four siblings. They were given an opportunity at a young age to ponder the great questions–immortality, pre-destination, spirituality, afterlife–but view them in an increasingly self-absorbed manner, never seeing or caring how their own pain fits into the big picture.
Now we’re all guilty of that to some extent (at least I am), so I don’t want to be overly judgmental of the Golds. But there are a lot of extraordinarily messed up literary families out there with greater depth, who experience tragedy but go through it with compassion, empathy and a dose of philosophy–the Hamiltons and the Trasks in East of Eden, for example, to give another book club example. I’m not saying Chloe Benjamin should be John Steinbeck, I’m just wishing her characters were able to see beyond themselves a little bit more.
I want to read The Great Believers. And also The Heart’s Invisible Furies. So “uplifting” is no longer required; I’m over it. :). Truly though, the books with the most meat for discussion are usually the ones that aren’t uplifting – in the sense that “uplifting” often means a light read.
Here’s where we are now (I removed Sally Field):
The Nix by Nathan Hill
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (or Ladder of Years)
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories by Penelope Lively
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
I like Anne Tyler, but we did one not too long ago.
Weirdly, that link is going to Saul’s funeral for me, not to the Raj quote. Luckily the Kindle has page numbers. I guess, I’d say that was sort of the point. Perhaps knowing those death dates made them more self absorbed than they might have been otherwise.