New Providence Memorial Library's Online Reading Group discussion
Literary Elements Summer 2014
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Literary Elements - Week 8 Topic
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I recently read "Me Before You" and one of the main characters certainly did change by the end of the novel. If I write too much about how she changed, I'd give away the plot for those who want to read this book.JoJo Moyes certainly does know how to write characters that I care about. I'm more than halfway through "The Girl You Left Behind" and again I like her characters.
I hope to be able to make the party on July 31st.
I think the main characters have to change by the end of the story, or there would be no story. I finally finished The Prince of Tides, and I recommend it. The main character, Tom Wingo, changes by the end of the book, but the reader only knows this because of the flashbacks in time. We see Tom as an adult in the beginning, but only when the writer leads us into his childhood and the family's struggles and tragedies do we see how far Tom has come. Through Tom's eyes we also see the changes in the secondary characters of his father, mother, sister and brother. Tom is narrating the story, though, and I wonder if he's a reliable narrator (should I trust him.) I'm kind of fascinated by this idea in literature because I'm very gullible when I begin reading a story and trust the main character almost completely. So I will pose another question: have you read any books where the narrator can't be trusted? Why is that?
Karen - last month I tried to read "The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards" by Kristopher Jansma and right away we knew the narrator was unreliable because of the “Tell all the truth but tell it slant." comment very early in the book. In addition to many things that just didn't seem 'right', partway through the book a character's name changes. I think I've read quite a few books with unreliable narrators but this is the only one that came to mind because I recently tried to read it and gave up halfway through.
I loved Me Before You. I just read that earlier this year. Prince of Tides is an oldie but goodie. Nick Nolte and the "Barbra" were great in the movie. I can list a number of books that the character changed for the good or better, but I have to stand by the Life of Pi. Watch the movie by Director Ang Lee if you do not have time for another summer read. The books seems IMPOSSIBLE to be made into a movie, but 11 Oscar nominations tells it all. The casting was terrific right down to Richard Parker. I do not want to spoil the ending, so stop reading now. My question is, if any time we tell a story about a life event, are we actually re-telling a memory? After all, we use recall to tell the story. So when Pi is finally found after months at sea, why do the doctors find his version so impossible to believe? And their version of the violence/cruelty against the mother and murder and cannibalism of the cook/cabin boy more credible? Why do most viewers want to believe in the tiger/zebra/orangutan or did they? Just wondering...
Side note: For anyone looking for a different slant to the female police chief/solving crimes, Linda Castillo's "Kate Burkholder's" series is terrific. All 6 are in the NP library. Former Amish member, Kate now serves as the police chief of Painter's Mill, Ohio.From day one, the Amish do not trust her and the Englishers question her ability to do her job. So does she. Lifetime Orginal movies did her Sworn to Silence and re-titled it An Amish Murder. What is so nice about the series is learning about the Amish from a real former Amish person and excellent story teller.
For a different twist from non-fiction, try her first book.
I'm going to try to make it on the 31st. Marie - adding Linda Castillo to my reading list, thanks for the recommendation.
As to characters changing - I guess it depends on what you read. Jack Reacher, Alex Delaware, Butch Karp/Marlene Ciampi,Vicki Warshawski, Dismas Hardy, Stone Barrington, etc. - part of what keeps me coming back is I know just what to expect from them. Even when they're introspective, they don't change (they just think about it).
I'll also try to be there on the 31st. Jack Reacher is my favorite on audio when Dick Hill reads. However, David Baldacci has a new character John Puller-get it-Jack/John Reacher/Puller also military super star turned investigator in shady people/politicos etc. DB has 2 novels featuring Puller. I hope Lee Childs and Baldacci are having a "friendly" rivalry because DB threw a couple of digs about ex-military police that go rogue like Reacher.You may also like King/Maxwell series Baldacci also has, the other couple are just too over the top.
My thoughts is that Baldacci has a huge number of ghost writers cranking out multiple books a year like Patterson does.
However, you can NOT over look Harry Bosch. This is also a flawed character and he knows it and fights with his demons often. He was one of the first of all the series that makes us enjoy the mystery murder reads.
The cast of characters in the
Butch Karp/Ciampi duo is terrific. I just love Dirty Warren and his giant side kick Booger. And I swear I can smell the pastries and Sunday chicken baking when he visits the Jewish couple that survived the holocaust.
Writing like that makes the story line so much more believable and life-like that I feel I know these people personally and they are not perfect. They fall down, their hearts break, their kids disappoint them (or not), the dog dies, the cat attacks (Mr. Friskers) the new boyfriend on the first romantic home cooked dinner or the mother-in-law moves in and creates havic (Plum series). It all just makes the series so much more fun and enjoyable.
Marie - I've also read Baldacci's King/Maxwell series, before it became a TV show (and the Camel Club / Oliver Stone ones, too). And Harry Bosch. And Stephanie Plum. And a bunch of the cozy mysteries with recurring heroines (began my foray into those with Diane Mott Davidson's first book, long before I knew "cozy" was the term that applied). I agree about Patterson, but I keep going back, if I can borrow the ebooks from the library, for commuting purposes.
This week I opted for an easy read: Marie Bostwick's "Between Heaven and Texas". It was a fun book that I finished within two days. In the beginning of the book the main character, Mary Dell, is a little girl who does as her mother wishes, in particular participating in pageants which she doesn't like and is not successful in anyway. She starts rebelling against her mother and it comes to a blow after she gives birth to a boy with down syndrome and the mother refers to the child as "a retard". The birth of her son makes her stand up for him and herself.
i just finished "The Round House" by Louise Erdrich for Thursday night BC. Good insight into "res" (Native American reservation) life, though of course a slice of it, as all accounts are. The protagonist, Joe, a 13 year old boy, has to find a way to help his mother who was brutally assaulted and navigate with his judge father, the murky legal system of reservation and "white" law. in his efforts to discover the truth (his mother is too traumatized to reveal details) Joe is altered drastically by the end of the book. he has to grow up quickly; understand what happened to his mother, discover the truth, with his friends find his own brand of justice, since the "system" is not helping him. finally, yet another life altering event forces him to "grow up" sooner than he should.
the story is actually told from Joe's perspective years later (the events unfold in 1989) as an adult. but the narrator rarely emerges and it appears to be told as it's happening.
eye opening in terms of the complex web of tribal and white law, and how still, native americans are treated with disrespect in and on their own land
Thanks for the recommendation, I will get this next. I really look forward to reading this.
I just finished 1984 for another book club - would not have been my choice... Sadly, the main character changes considerably from being a bit of a renegade to "loving" Big Brother. The change is hard won by Big Brother through experience including torture and imprisonment.Generally speaking, I agree that the main character should change in some way for the story to be meaningful.
Sorry I can't make it on the 31st- I'll be away. Lisa: thanks for encouraging me to participate- I have thoroughly enjoyed it!!
Eileen - I read "1984" when I was in high school. It was responsible for my never reading the ending of a book again. The back cover said something like, "this book will keep your attention from beginning...until the last four words". Well, I kept wondering what the 'last four words" were - and I looked - SPOILER ALERT FOR "1984"
I think the last four words were: "He loved Big Brother" I think were the words and it ruined the rest of the book for me because I knew how it would end! I read it for an English class assignment and had to finish it even though I knew the ending was not what I wanted it to be! I was going to re-read this in 1984 but never did.
Did you find the writing 'dated'?
Protesting the Viet Nam War I believed "Big Brother" was the government controlling and manipulating the masses through mind control. Not unlike Jim Jones and that idiot at Waco on a much smaller level. I think the new term "sheeple" is very appropriate. People do NOT want to think for themselves because it is uncomfortable at times and questions authority/gov.etc. I do not want to do a rant, but I think anyone would 1/4 a thinking brain, can see we have had Big Brother for years. We cling to false hope that "things" will get better, the reality is, not necessarily. Anyone that truly thinks that, might want to read The Road. Then tell me different. I have said this for 20 years, there may be a time in MY LIFE TIME, that I wake up at 2am and the orange glow in the sky, is not the Sun. I'll stick to my escape reading, everyday reality is disappointing/hard enough.Lighter note: For anyone that has never read James Lee Burke, may want to check him out. He has over 30 books and is perhaps the best writer out there. He has won more awards than I can list. When he tells the story, you are NOT reading it, you are living it with him. He is the author of the David Robideaux series based on a very flawed ex-Viet-nam, New Orleans Cop now in New Iberia, La and the Billy Bob Holland series based on a real grandfather that was a used a gun when an outlaw sheriff and then turned into a preacher. I did not intend to like Bitterroot (he wrote this about 10 years ago) but I loved it.
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Great question. Aren't all narrators unreliable? As unreliable as ourselves in the sense that we can only see things through our own window rather than from the perspective of the full horizon.
This is apparently a very popular topic...check this out!
https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/...
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Marie - adding Linda Castillo to my reading list, thanks for the recommendation.
As to characters changing - I guess it depends on what you read. Jack Re..."
Really interesting that you come back b/c you know what to expect. I guess that's sort of like comfort food, eh? Knowing what to expect is one reason why I don't read very much fiction. I prefer the unpredictability of reality. But comfort food has its moments and can be wonderful..
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So glad that you joined us!
Marilyn wrote: "Eileen - I read "1984" when I was in high school. It was responsible for my never reading the ending of a book again. The back cover said something like, "this book will keep your attention from ..."You are correct in your memory of the last 4 words!! I found all of the political treatise to be a very challenging read- just not my interest.
Interestingly, some of his imagined world is our reality (Big Brother IS watching every time we Google or visit a web page)and it would not be a far cry to have today's smart TV's, etc. spewing propaganda and monitoring our moves like Orwell's telescreens did.
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This week's question is whether the main characters change by the end of the book? Do they grow or mature? Do they learn something about themselves and how the world works?
We hope that this happens in the books we read or else the book is probably rather depressing. I'm now reading A Chorus of Buffalo by Rita Rudner. It's a book about issues surrounding the continued habitation of the bison population out west on public lands. The author begins by trying to remain non-political and just be concerned about the welfare of the animals. But in speaking with concerned parties, environmentalists, ranchers, rangers and other experts, she comes down on the side of the buffalo being allowed free range of public land and trumping the rights of ranchers to graze cattle on these lands.
So, although a work of non-fiction, her attitude changes through the book based on what she learns. I'm sure there are many examples you've found in your reading travels...
By the way, this week, we're awarding a $10 from A&P.