A Night in the Lonesome October - Spoilers > Likes and Comments
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This book has 31 chapters; a chapter for each day of the month of October. Please keep all spoilers only to the appropriate date or earlier. In other words, on October 1st, spoilers only on the first chapter. On October 9th, spoilers allowed from chapter 1 - 9.
It is always a fun exercise while reading the book to find the characters in this illustration.
Painting by James Warhola.
Remember - no spoilers before the day of the month.
A hint of spoilers from the author in his dedication for the book. To --
Mary Shelley
Edgar Allen Poe
Bram Stoker
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
H.P. Lovecraft
Ray Bradbury
Robert Bloch
Albert Payson Terhune
and the makers of
a lot of old movies --
Thanks
Snuff, our narrator introduces himself in the prologue. Snuff appears in the bottom right corner of the illustration. How does a dog narrator add to the story?
Katy wrote: "Snuff, our narrator introduces himself in the prologue. Snuff appears in the bottom right corner of the illustration. How does a dog narrator add to the story?"
Katy, I love the "voice" of Snuff in the prologue. He's able to communicate with the animals, and gather information. He's intelligent and tough with a sense of humor. I'm looking forward to reading his narration.
Fingers crossed, I put in a library request yesterday. No idea how long the wait will be. Gotta love impulse reads!
I wish I could read all stories through a dog narrator! I've never read this and know it's going to be fun.
Kathleen wrote: "I wish I could read all stories through a dog narrator! I've never read this and know it's going to be fun."What book have a dog narrator? I can only think of The Call of the Wild
J_BlueFlower wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "I wish I could read all stories through a dog narrator! I've never read this and know it's going to be fun."What book have a dog narrator? I can only think of The Call of t..."
J_BlueFlower, [book:The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein has a wonderful dog narrator.
Good question. Two come to mind:Flush by Virginia Woolf
and
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
I've read this every October since I discovered it a few years ago, but I've never managed to read just one section a day. So I'll be waiting a while and then cruising through, like usual. I do look forward to everyone's reactions, and I'll be conscious of the date so I don't spoil anything.I really like Snuff's voice, I think it's a big part of the pleasure of the book for me. And I hope everyone else has as much fun as I do with this.
Teri-K wrote: "I've read this every October since I discovered it a few years ago, but I've never managed to read just one section a day. So I'll be waiting a while and then cruising through, like usual. I do loo..."That sounds like me.
I immediately loved the voice of Snuff. I was totally unaware of this book until you chose it, Katy, so this feels like superb fun to me.
Yes, I'll agree with everyone that Snuff's voice is very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed his conversation with the graveyard dog, I chuckled a lot through that one:"How long've you been a graveyard dog?"
"All my life."
"Like it?"
"It's a living"
Ha, so pleasingly silly.
Because of the dedication and the picture on the cover (which seems to have Frankenstein's monster at least), I expect we'll see quite a few characters from other stories. I'm wondering who Snuff's master, Jack, could be. If he's the man patting the dog on the cover, he's a vampire.
I don't see how I'm going to keep the suggested pace though. It only took me a few minutes to read the prologue and chapter 1. I may end up jumping ahead, but I'll be careful to avoid spoilers inappropriate to the date. ;)
You are all being such good sports for this read. Hope everyone enjoys a silly Halloween book.
I'd somehow missed the note that we were going to read one chapter per day, so I didn't start until today. Then, once I started, I didn't want to stop...finally forced myself to put it down at the end of the Oct 5 chapter.Love Snuff as the narrator and his conversations with other animals and his banter with the Things are hilarious. Can't wait to find out what the heck is going on!
Oh, and A Dog's Purpose is another book with a dog narrator.
On day 2 we are introduced to several new characters. Can you find them in the illustration, and what can you deduce about each character?
Characters (up to day 2):Jack & Snuff (dog)
Crazy Jill & Graymark (cat)
Morris and MacCab & Nightwind (owl)
Rastov & Quicklime (Black Snake)
Teri-K mentioned the poem To ---. Ulalume: A Ballad by Edgar Allan Poe contains the title of the book in the first verse of the ballad.Here is a link to the poem if you would like to read it:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...
Of course, being a cat person, I am thrilled to see Graymark enter the story. I am finding all the animal familiars very interesting and distinct in personality already.
Graymark's name is similar to Graymalkin, a witch in Shakespeare's "Macbeth." She and Snuff seem to be helpful to each other, at least for today.
I got a kick out of Graymark thinking it was good to behave inconsistently, since that's on brand for a cat. :)
October 3rd. It is becoming evident who some of the players are, but I am wondering what "openers and closers" are and what the game really is.
Connie wrote: "Graymark's name is similar to Graymalkin, a witch in Shakespeare's "Macbeth." She and Snuff seem to be helpful to each other, at least for today."There are so many literary illusions in this book, I think half the fun is trying to search them all out, and I'm sure you're right to catch Graymalkin. I think we can be pretty sure that no names in this book were selected randomly by Zelazny, he's deliberately chosen them. What we deduce from them is half the fun. ;) For me this book is like a treasure hunt, where you go from one clue to the next, never quite sure where you'll end up.
Teri-K wrote: "Connie wrote: "Graymark's name is similar to Graymalkin, a witch in Shakespeare's "Macbeth." She and Snuff seem to be helpful to each other, at least for today."There are so many literary illusio..."
I'm already finding it fun, even though I have no idea where the story is going.
That is the fun for me, as well, Teri. It is exciting to see how many references you can find and I am keeping a log.
Yes, I can only repeat what everyone else has said: it's fun, and I have no idea where it's going. "Openers and closers" feels like the only real hint so far (other than digging for supplies in graveyards), and I don't know what it means. Needle (found in a tree) works for The Count, which might be a reference to Dracula, and so Needle might be a bat. Crazy Jill is probably a witch (she has a cat, and there is a reference to her broom in today's chapter.) If The Count is Dracula, then the vampire on the cover probably isn't Jack. Trying to think of the significance of Jack's name, my only theory so far is that since he's the main human character (or at least the main character's human), and this is a Halloween story, it might simply be a reference to Jack-o-lanterns. (My only other idea is Jack the Ripper, and that doesn't seem too relevant.)Perhaps I'm thinking of this to literally, but the animal names seem to be physical descriptions of the animal. "Needle" could refer to a bat's sharp teeth. "Graymark" could be a physical description of the cat -- the cat on the cover certainly has gray markings. "Nightwind" is evocative of an owl in flight. "Snuff", well , that's sort of an onomatopoeia of the sound dogs make when sniffing around. And "Quicklime" the snake, that one's a bit more of a stretch, but the "quick" part seems to fit anyway.
This is the spoiler thread.