Sarah’s Comments (group member since Aug 24, 2025)

Sarah’s comments from the NYRB Classics group.

Sam wrote: "THe winner of the poll by twice the number of votes as A Time for Everything was The Juniper Tree!! I will add a group topic for this book in December. A Time for Everything did quite well and I wi..."

"Driver" looks really worthwhile and I would read it gladly when I can get a copy. I voted for "Juniper" bc I have it in the house. I read a couple years back on a Comyns binge and enjoyed it. It would be good to talk about after a re-read.

Thank you! I thought it might be Francesca Woodman. Interesting pairing.

Has anyone in the group got The Wooden Shepherdess? I would like to know about the cover photograph (without buying the book). I can't find the photographer's name on the NYRB site.

thanks!

WndyJW wrote: "My Death
The Murderess
Moravagine
Other Worlds: Peasants, Pilgrims, Spirits, Saints
Thus Were Their Faces
[book:The Gre..."

thank you for these great recommendations!

1. The Waste Books
2. Swann's Way
3. The Three Christs of Ypsilanti
4. Stoner
5. The True History of the First Mrs. Meredith and Other Lesser Lives
6. Skylark
7. Novels in Three Lines
8. Kaputt
9. My Death
10. Angel


Of course I am always hoping the next (nlrb) book I pick up will become one of my favourites. It can happen.

I'm reading The Fox in the Attic but in a non-NYRB edition. Does that count!?

Sarah wrote: "Emmeline wrote: "I wasn't planning to join, just because of book-buying limits and time, but how big a deal is the doll dream here? I am also specifically reading books with/about dolls."

I think ..."

hey! i see you're in barcelona -- so am I. You can borrow my copy if you'd like.

Emmeline wrote: "I wasn't planning to join, just because of book-buying limits and time, but how big a deal is the doll dream here? I am also specifically reading books with/about dolls."

I think the doll dream is central to the story and the questions about identity. I don't want to build it up too much since you may be disappointed -- it packed more power for me the first time I read it.

I hear you on the cost of buying books. If you like offbeat creepiness you will probably enjoy this, and it's quite short.

Just finished Good Behaviour. It took a bit but got better as it went along. Good characters. I like how the plot all came together and the end brought a zinger.

I read this for the second time this summer and thought it was excellent also the second time around. When Ralston explains the dream about the doll, it was wildly creepy -- it's wonderful to get a thrill from a book like that.

I am very interested in what others think about the ending, too. I remind myself that this is a (somewhat unconventional) horror story and needn't be realistic -- and that is what makes it a great read.

Oddly, I re-read Kazuo Ishiguro's "A Pale View of the Hills" soon after re-reading this, and the subject of identity, blurred identity/unsure identity, comes up in that too. There's a similar, intense moment where you try to make sense of who the character is -- I recommend that one if the subject intrigued any other readers.

Well then I'll order Speedboat whether the group reads it or not. Smile.

I've long wanted to read Renata Adler. Speedboat

(i did love Stoner, though, and would think it's a good choice for those who haven't read it)

Ok, yes Tyrant Banderas is stunning.
Yes, the covers are similar in their two basic elements: title box and image. It's branding. I like the effect, because they work simply, and because in general a lot of other publishers' book covers suck.

They are all beautiful. I love Fatale, The Sun King and Love in a Fallen City. I have a little book of Ah Kian's work - the artist whose work is on the cover of Fallen City.
Here's another beauty:
A book of poetry.

Jenny wrote: "I finished the book today.

This isn't really a spoiler, but look for the moment when Miklos Ijas is standing outside their home. It is a gut-puncher."

I have to go back and find that, Jenny. I remember it only vaguely now.

After all the humor in the book, it was surprising to me just how heavy and sad the ending was.
As to the humor, it is one of the book's best attributes. That silly scene with the Chinaman at the theater and the father's drunken "ride" in the chair when he comes home from the Panthers party, really made me laugh.

Seana wrote: "I think one of the most incredible moments of the book is when the parents call Skylark for the first time and we meet her. There is something almost cinematographic about that moment--we somehow get instantly that the light hustle and bustle and anxiety that might well attend some possessive parents seeing off an only daughter in this era is masking something quite a bit different."

I agree that is a great scene. It's interesting how Skylark pretends (?) not to hear being called and how she's trying to sit in a posture "best for her." The parents' reaction when Skylark actually comes into view and responds is stark, with the expectant smile disappearing.

Declan wrote: "I feel that all the three of them are, in different ways, complicit in their mutual suffocation. To - as they see it - protect Skylark her parents have allowed a series of habits to come into being..."
Hi Declan - I also think that feeling of all three being enslaved to their life is very much there; they're all complicit.
As I read the book, I felt most for the parents, who were really capable of having an inordinate amount of fun. But in the end I felt most for Skylark.
I think it brings up the point of really how much Skylark WOULD be able to attain at that time without being in the slightest bit attractive or having any talents at all.
What, for example, would have been the case if Skylark had been their son instead of their daughter? Would they have had less compassion? Or maybe I mean tolerance or patience...?

Mikki wrote: "I've just started the book, but I did find myself smiling at the author's description of the parents' crying. Sort of in a rolling-of-the-eyes tone -- "And now they were crying again" also when he..."
Yes, now I wonder if she was putting on a show... hmm, and how she feels kind of thankful to the priest (for watching with such patience?). But (based on my own experience) I think we've all cried like that and wished we were invisible. And she spared her parents that very big outburst.

Jenny wrote: "the crying seemed to happen multiple places. The townspeople were used to it enough that they just ignored it, and then the parents congratulate each other on a good cry..."

I laughed at that, too. The crying always seemed so treacley and sentimental, it was funny.

I think they do feel guilty, and another thing that struck me is how Skylark is presented very nearly as an invalid. The scene where we first see her in the garden says that clearly. What parent doesn't feel guilty about a handicapped child, esp. if it's the genes that cause it ('perceived' ugliness or leukemia or whatever).
Skylark's existence surely cramped the parent's style, as they say, but I have trouble making her into someone with ill-will, even unconscious ill-will. Her parents did a lot to comfort her, like disparaging the restaurant food, which they in truth loved, and even if Skylark somehow willed that, the parents could have resisted. I don't know. I only know the end made me feel like crying, too. Hmmm, Skylark, what a long reach you have. laugh.