Fiction Addiction discussion

I've chosen this book as the optional second group read.

Start: July 15
End: August 15

Please post any group therapy discussions here.

I have this on order from the library, they had to get it through interlibrary loan. At first, I wasn't that interested to read this but I did love the original movie. Then, I reflected on it a little and realized that I hadn't read a western since probably 1978 :) It is funny I know the exact time. I can mark it due to a move at that time.

Anyway, this will be really nostalgic for me. My dad, who is gone now, was an avid reader of all kinds of books, but his guilty pleasure was pulp westerns. Back then there was a series out with the main protagonist named, Edge, he was an anti-hero type. Anyway they were pretty gritty for the time and I probably shouldn't have been reading them, but I devoured them all. Anyway, that was the last time I read westerns so I'm kind of interested in how this will be.

Anyway here is the first in the Edge series: they were repubished a couple times apparently:

I'm glad to hear that. I've read a few real westerns but it's been a very long time. I'll check that first book out. I am always interested in something new.

I think this one will be a pretty quick read and I'm looking forward to it. I tend to really like 1st person narratives and really like Mattie Ross's character. Usually I like to read a book before I see the movie but this time I've seen the 2010 remake. I love John Wayne and will watch his version when we are done.

Would anyone like to discuss this one chapter by chapter? Or a few chapters at a time?

Well, Charles Portis sure uses concise and pithy language to convey his message. I suppose I've read enough western material to fill in the blanks where I wish he were more descriptive.

I'm on page 41 and Mattie Ross is a real spitfire. I love her. Just coming up on her first meeting with Rooster.

Just finished. I will reserve my comments until many of you have read it.

I finished last night as well, but will wait to say much until a few others have finished. I will say that I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Westerns are not a favorite genre of mine.

Hoping some of ya'll have managed to read this one in the last week or so. Can't wait to have a discussion.

I just started it today. Will probably have it done sometime tomorrow. It's starting out good. I'm hoping that since it's been years since I saw the movie it won't interfere with my reading!

Finally picked up my copy. Have something else to finish first, but i will get to it in the coming week

Started this today surprisingly enjoyable so far. I haven't read westerns in years and didn't expect this to really be my thing but it is good so far.

Finished this book today. Really enjoyed in a nostalgic kind of way. The values the book exemplified are something that seem to have gone by the wayside today and are sorely missed.

I am in awe of this book. Such a short read but so much goodness packed in. I do have a penchant for western life...not western books per say...so I think I could be a little skewed. I had to keep putting the book down because I didn't want to speed through it. I wanted to savor it.

The scene with the two of them and Blackie at the end was gut wrenching. It think I read it through tears.

Picked this one purely at random and I am so glad I did.

Surely more than 2 of us read this one. Ann, Did you finish?

No, sorry. I kind of lost interest in the very beginning and then it was due back at the library.

I understand. :)

I read it. I thought it was good, but I always have a hard time really enjoying books when the writing style is very dated. I did enjoy it more than I thought I would, but at the same time I had also had a really hard time getting over the idea that the men of this time would have gone along with her at all.

Can anyone recommend another good western? Maybe I need to give the genre more of a chance.

The Lonesome Dove series is amazing. McMurtry is such an amazing author. You need to be hardcore into history to read his Berrybender Narratives. I also loved Dances With Wolves.

Excellent. Quite amazing that this was written in the late 1960s - it feels like a historical document (you'll need to grab a dictionary here and there). Within a few paragraphs Mattie Ross' voice rings out and Portis is subsumed...

Andy wrote: "Excellent. Quite amazing that this was written in the late 1960s - it feels like a historical document (you'll need to grab a dictionary here and there). Within a few paragraphs Mattie Ross' voice ..."

I completely agree. Once you begin reading, it doesn't seem like a novel and Mattie takes over as you experience history.

I'm trying to decided which Portis book to read next.

Yes, it does have that feel that you are being immersed in history. I don't know why this is not offered in American Lit classes. You get such a sense of time and place from it.