Book freaks discussion

This is the discussion thread for the August-September 2013 monthly book read Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt ! Feel free to talk about any thoughts or feelings you might have about the book, either while reading or after you have finished the novel! Let the discussion the begin :)

Is this book really $25?

Elizabeth wrote: "Is this book really $25?"

I found books for like $7-$12!
http://www.amazon.com/Tell-Wolves-Im-...

Wow so I literally just finished the book & I am absolutely amazed by how well it turned out! In the beginning I wasn't so keen on it, and felt that it was hard to sink into the narration but, soon enough June captured my heart!

I'm surprised you folk don't have much to say about this novel.

It was a second time for me - I just love the story.

I so much wanted to know her uncle and Toby.

It's hard to believe though - to think a kid that young would understand so much.

Not hard to believe how hung up she was on her uncle. This is a common thing that happens to young girls. Who are the first men we fall in love with? An older uncle - that's often the case.

I hope somebody's going to talk about the book here.

After I had read a few chapters I was thinking about Holden Caulfield in 'The Catcher in the Rye'. June's tone reminded me so much of Holden's. She has that same almost inarticulate sense of her motivations, while describing her family and life. It's a bit frustrating to read. However, I think it demonstrates the author's talent for developing and maintaining her character's voice.

Toby is for whom I feel enormous sympathy. Having to hide in the basement when he and Finn had lived together for nine - NINE - years!

I remember when AIDS first was discovered. I was living in San Francisco at the time. Unlike many, I believed the press reports in how it was passed from person to person, so I was unafraid to sit or eat with someone who had AIDS. However, I saw with my own eyes how if a terribly thin and sickly man boarded a bus and sat down, the people sitting nearby would all get up and leave, so that that entire area of the bus would be empty of passengers except for the sickly man.

Existential loneliness comes in many forms. No wonder June and Toby feel a link.

I'm at chapter thirty-eight.

aPriL MEOWS often with scratching wrote: "After I had read a few chapters I was thinking about Holden Caulfield in 'The Catcher in the Rye'. June's tone reminded me so much of Holden's. She has that same almost inarticulate sense of her mo..."

Wow! You really have put things into perspective for me. It's very interesting to hear from someone who experienced the crisis first hand! And it's true, loneliness is often essentially the same, despite the differences in its causes.

I finished the book last night.

I admit to using up one tissue by the end.

This book is very good and I'll be recommending it to people.

IMHO, though, a major flaw was how the author created Greta and June's relationship. June could clearly see Greta's angst and wanting to do things with June. June didn't want to believe what she saw - at least that is what we see on the page. Either June secretly or unbeknown to herself was punishing Greta or she actually thought Greta was pranking her. I couldn't buy either supposition hinted at by the author's setup. Greta and June were very supportive of each other in other parts of the story and both knew how the other felt about things almost instinctually. The game they played with painting additions to the portrait of themselves - adding their dynamic changing contributions to the static finished picture completed by the family (loved the symbolism - my favorite authorial plot device, actually!) showed a depth of affection and understanding between them that didn't compute with their oddly at-odds relationship. Ditto with the pseudo-burial routine Greta provided June with to rescue her and bring her back to life. Those two psychodynamic acts - which I can't begin to tell you how much I enjoyed - simply destroyed any belief I had in their believing the other had abandoned them. If it was to outline how the entire family seemed to allow the jealousy wolf in, well, it didn't work for me.

aPriL MEOWS often with scratching wrote: "I finished the book last night.

I admit to using up one tissue by the end.

This book is very good and I'll be recommending it to people.

IMHO, though, a major flaw was how the author created ..."

I agree! The relationship between Greta & June really was one thing that just absolutely didn't compute! They seemed so insync & obviously wanted to be together in so many ways that their rivalry seemed unwarranted!

I wish I was around when you guys where reading this novel. I really adored it! I thought it tackled a hard topic of HIV and how it affects children. I actually have a great uncle that is HIV positive and I know how it feels to be angry. You really want to blame someone. So ususally you hate the person you think gave it to them. Their current boyfriend or girlfriend. However, some things don't have someone to blame. In my case there really is no one to blame. Everyone makes their choices and we have to let them. I understood the hate that June's parents had for their uncle's boyfriend. I was glad that eventually things worked out.

The only thing I did not like was that June's parents hid the boyfriend from June and that her Uncle let them. I felt like that had to be a deep betrayal on his part to the boyfriend. To let him be invisible. I also had a problem with the fact that Uncle knew that June had feelings for him and did nothing about it. It almost seemed like he was okay with it. I mean everyone as a child eventually crushes on a family member. However, I felt like June's was a little too deep. But it also made sense that she loved him so deeply.

I also was frustrated about June's parents. Personally, I'm the kind of person who wants to be told about family things. I know that some issues need to be discussed in an age-appropriate manner, but in the book I think it was pure malicious spite and hatred that led to the parents keeping secrets. As far as her uncle, it's hard to go over a parent's wishes when you are dealing with an underage relative, legally. There can be the whole thing has led to emotional burnout, too. If you don't have power, how can you take actIon? Even if the uncle wanted to meet with the niece, the parents could claim he was abusing her or kidnapped her or whatever.

It's why grandparents get shut out of their grandkids life, too. Parents have all of the power and authority, legally. I've seen kids in misery and they think relatives have abandoned them, or friends or teachers, because they don't understand how parents may have contacted these other folks and threatened them with legal action if they interact with their kid. Sometimes it's for a good reason, maybe 20% of the time. But that leaves 80% who may have wanted to give the kid normal affection or opportunities the parents didn't want them to have. Parents can be jealous, as well as mean. Kids may never know what happened, and by the time they are 18, and legally safe to talk to, people have moved on.

That is true. There was really nothing that the Uncle could have done but you would think he would have at least mentioned the boyfriend. He could have had little jesters around the house. For instance, pictures on mantels so that way June would at least question or know without really having to ask. I guess I just personally couldn't have handled being shut out like the boyfriend was. However, I do understand why the uncle did it. I guess he did not want to have to choose between not seeing June or telling her about his boyfriend. Those are hard decisions. Especially, for an uncle that really loves June. I just was so mad at the parents because it was almost like the mom wanted her brother to be alone. Once he tested HIV+ its not like he is going to have a plethora of mates he can choose from.

In the 1980's I lived in San Francisco. Fortunately I read newspapers and books, so I knew about how AIDS worked. However, I saw people get off of buses when AIDS infected people got on. It was very sad, but people were scared. There was no shots or pills then. If you got AIDS, you died within 5 years. Many people with AIDS had dreadful looking sores and destroyed faces, and it all made people hysterical. Since I read, I did not believe as most people did then, if you breathed their air or touched a hand or gave a hug, you would catch AIDS. Even if you were not homophobic, you could go off the deep end with hysteria about catching a fatal disease that looked so terrible. Plus, add in the judgemental attitudes of those folks who are religious and who believed that a god was punishing people for having sex without god's approval. If they learned it was because of drug addiction and not sex, well, god was still punishing them for going against god's power and hate, only they liked to call it god's love.

It was, and still is in certain places, messed up and a horror about how some people hurt other people out of stupidity, prejudice and hatred. It is one of the reasons I decided to study the history of religion and took college classes on comparative religions. Now I'm an atheist. I voted for gay marriage in my state. How can people think having HIV means you should be hateful and cruel especially? What about liver disease or lung disease caused by smoking or drinking? And so on.

Books like this make people think. I hope some readers will be curious enough to do more research too, like I did back in the 1980's. I think mom DID want her brother to be alone.

I do hope that it opens awareness. I remember when my great uncle came to visit us. He slept in my room and I was SO afraid that if I used the pillow after him I would get HIV. I know that isn't true now but it was still scary to me then. I asked my mom and she was horrified that I believed that. She thought we had learned about it in school. We did touch on it but it was more of a precaution about unprotected sex and the effects. It taught us nothing about dealing with people who had it and their struggles. She sat me down and explained how it is transmitted and what my uncle had been through. I had no idea about any of it. I mean my uncle looked healthy enough to me. He just had a few health problems. I found out that when he found out he was so afraid of wasting away to nothing (he was really buff and prided himself on it) He forced feed himself peanut butter everyday. He ate it until he was a hefty size. He was unhappy with his size but it was his way of not wasteing away. Even worse, when he finally realize he was gay he tried to take his life. I finally understood that my uncle had a lot more in his life then the jolly man he was. He went through years of experiemental drugs hoping that one day we could come up with a cure. Then I was ashamed of myself for not being more aware of his real feelings.

So, you are right, people can be cruel and do need to be educated. It has gotten better but I still feel like we are largely uneducated about it. I also hope that this book makes people research it. Maybe even put their support behind finding a cure.

Ebony(poppyyukia) wrote: "I do hope that it opens awareness. I remember when my great uncle came to visit us. He slept in my room and I was SO afraid that if I used the pillow after him I would get HIV. I know that isn't tr..."

Wow Ebony! It's amazing that you were able to relate such a personal experience to the book! I think that as with all things, awareness is the first step in a long sequence to help generate a positive change in attitude towards victims of the disease!