For Bullet Number Eleven, the title of Hercules’ 11th Labor says it all: “Steal the Apples of the Hesperides.” This is the Halloween chapter, where Hawley comes to take young Loo trick-or-treating and she greets him at the door: “In her arms was a basket full of apples.” Later, Mabel Ridge offers an apple to Hawley in a rare gesture of kindness.
In the 11th Labor of Hercules, we’re told, "because they belonged to the gods, the apples could not remain with Eurystheus. After all the trouble Hercules went through to get them, he had to return them to Athena, who took them back to the garden at the northern edge of the world.” I thought of Hawley returning Loo to Mabel Ridge, believing that he could no longer keep her safe.
Hannah Tinti has said that Bullet Number Eleven was one of the hardest chapters for her to write:
She doesn’t elaborate, but I think she must be referring to the moment that Hawley, after scrubbing every trace of himself from sidewalk, porch, car and carpet, climbs in the tub with the intention of committing suicide — and the phone rings. It’s Mabel Ridge–“her voice was like Lily’s, or what Lily might have one day sounded like, if she had lived to let the years pass and take their toll.” Mabel Ridge saves Hawley, a sort of divine intervention with unexpected (and unwelcome) consequences, as Hawley then comes and takes Loo away from her.
I am late to the discussion because of my grandchildren visiting. (I was too tired to post!!!) I will say that I liked the book, but didn’t love it. I liked it more than Pachinko. This discussion is helping me to appreciate it more.
One thing I didn’t really believe is Hawley taking Loo back from her grandmother. He understood the kind of life he led, but didn’t seem to put her safety as his prime concern. It is hard to explain, but I would have wanted to keep her safe above everything by keeping her at her grandmother’s house.
I had mentally put the book into my won’t read again pile. However, I think I might read it again someday.
@Mary13 I love your description of Hawley scrubbing his blood away as symbolic cleansing of his life away from Lilly, Loo and even Mabel Ridge, before committing suicide.
I read in one of the links that Growing up in Salem formed Tinti’s imagination where she it was like Halloween year round.
Tinti’s description of Hawley taking Loo out for Halloween was such a slice of Smalltown American Life, wholesomeness, who couldn’t relate to that experience, but then she taints it with the red bloody footsteps. Such a Quentin Tarantino moment, or a Hercules guilt about bringing death upon the house.
Did anyone else think that Lilly may have committed suicide or even been murdered by Hawley? I thought the bathroom shrine may have been a memorial to her death in the bathroom. I was actually relieved to learn how she died. Whew!
@buenavista and @SouthJerseyChessMom, thanks for the Debussy info. While Hawley is listening to the music, “as if a miniature orchestra made of tiny bells had been waiting for this exact moment to perform for him” (p. 101), he thinks:
I know nothing about watches, so looked it up. For some reason, the wikipedia link won’t work, but the article is “Complication (horology).” Here’s an interesting fact:
I agree. I think at that particular juncture, the move was more about saving himself (psychologically/spiritually) than saving Loo.
I didn’t think murder, but the whole exaggerated ritual really spoke to some major guilt issues at work! In my mind, it helped to humanize Hawley as a person with a conscience, not simply a sociopath like King.
The interconnectedness and cosmic references reminded me of another one of our books, Cloud Atlas. It seems the books I read here with here really stand out in my mind; you all add so much richness and depth that the books stay with me.
^ @mary13 wow watches are indeed works of artistry ! Thanks for the quote, at the end of that paragraph I believe it estimates the Talbot watch was worth 11 million dollars, which I didn’t catch while reading it. When the watch is thrown into the ocean Hawley says it is priceless, but I was so curious of its value. Glad I reread that section !
Haha, I had the opposite reaction, sucker for emotional goo that I am. I was glad he went back for her…I guess I really wasn’t thinking about safety, lol. I enjoyed their special connectedness with the secret dark overtones. They were truly father and daughter.
Worlds Colliding
Found this tweet from Commmunity Bookstore, park slope ( which must be the coolest place on earth)
Because they just had together - pachinko,s Minjin lee with Hannah Tinti !!! Hope there is a you tube of their conversation!
**Community Bookstore
Community Bookstore @CommunityBkstr
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Jul 29
We were SO HAPPY to have @onestorymag, @hannahtinti, and @minjinlee11 - and our enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd - for a wonderful event last Thursday
Thanks for those links, @SouthJerseyChessMom! That’s pretty amazing that Min Jin Lee and Hannah Tinti had a one-on-one.
I liked the info on whale symbology. I thought the book’s epigraph had a rather unusual quote from Moby Dick – not one I fully understand.
In a way, Loo is like Ishmael, the lone survivor who will (one hopes) escape the sins of her father. On the other hand, she’s like the whale, because of the powerful hold she has on her father, and the way in which she drives all that he does. I do think we are supposed to associate her with the whale. She explores the model of its heart at the museum, “shuffling on her hands and knees through the tunnel of the aorta, slipping past a valve into the left ventricle…Loo squeezed her hands tight. Compared herself to the whale. If someone ever tried to climb inside her heart, they’d have to shrink down to the size of a chess piece” (p. 22).
In Bullet Number Eleven, Hawley listens to Loo on the phone:
I actually loved it, but haven’t read it since 1972!