Reading Envy Readers discussion

Here is a placeholder for this week's discussion.

Hi all, I guess I'm experiencing reading envy (just to coin a phrase). Most of you seem to be enjoying this book, but I'm having trouble staying engaged with it, not to say that I really dislike it, but I don't feel excited to get back to it and there's such a long way to go. I'm generally fond of reading long books. I'm listening to the audiobook - is anybody else doing that? I'm not ready to bail yet, but I did take a little break from it and will get back to finishing Part IV soon.

Karen wrote: "Hi all, I guess I'm experiencing reading envy (just to coin a phrase). Most of you seem to be enjoying this book, but I'm having trouble staying engaged with it, not to say that I really dislike it..."

I have been peppering my reading with lighter stuff like last night I read a science romance, because for some reason I'm dragging my feet getting to section IV. I'm sure people are more likely to post if they are into it!

Is the reading all in one voice or does it vary?

I'm a bit slow to start this section myself. This is due to picking up Beautiful World, Where Are You late last week, and I am so close to the end of it I just want to get there!

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Karen wrote: "Hi all, I guess I'm experiencing reading envy (just to coin a phrase). Most of you seem to be enjoying this book, but I'm having trouble staying engaged with it, not to say that I rea..."

There's one audiobook narrator, Robert Petkoff, and he's good at keeping the characters distinct. Some of the French accents were a bit weird, but I adjusted to them.

Well I’m behind. I’ll catch up later this week I hope. I’m reading for my IRL book groups and Tournament of Favorites. But I love Barkskins!!

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "I have been peppering my reading with lighter stuff like last night I read a science romance, because for some reason I'm dragging my feet getting to section IV.."

I'm dragging my feet a little bit too, but I think it's more about building up happy anticipation :) (I'm reading the print.) I'm also interspersing with lighter, or at least shorter books. Finished The Chosen and the Beautiful and I'm in the midst of a short story collection Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea. Thanks to Beige recommendation - I'm so impressed with it - such original speculative fiction!

I’ve been peppering/interspersing too, with some YA & some graphic novels. But every morning over coffee I buckle down and read the Proulx. At night over dinner I just don’t have the concentration for it. I have finished section VI (anticlimactic ending—weird after some of the other section endings, not what I expected). After finishing section VI I did experience some baulking even in the morning and put the book aside for a couple of days. But I think not owning a copy is driving me on—eventually I’ll run out of renewals and the book will vanish off my Kobo.

Karen, initially I started out listening to the book and intertwining it with a Kindle copy but was struggling too to engage with the characters and stories. The audio made it much harder to keep the characters straight so I ditched it and am now only reading which I’ve found a much more immersive experience.

As much as I’m bewitched by the prose, and believe me I am, the sheer wealth of names and relationships that you have to keep straight in your head is still overwhelming. Not sure either that the stop/start nature of the read along is helping with that. Having said that, I am now enjoying it and might just go on and read ahead.

Fiona wrote: "Karen, initially I started out listening to the book and intertwining it with a Kindle copy but was struggling too to engage with the characters and stories. The audio made it much harder to keep t..."

Did you see the family trees for the Sel and Duke families in the back of the book? The Sel family tree is pretty complicated ;)

Thanks Nadine, because I was reading on Kindle I didn’t. I shall search for it. Should be a great help.

Yes, I flip back to the family trees a lot!

I am finished with Section VI now and I totally loved it. I really LOLed at some sections of it! What did you all think of this section?

Great tip on the family trees. I hadn’t noticed this before!! Originally I was keeping notes of all the characters, but eventually that got to be too much work and I didn’t want to stop reading to update my notes.

Karin wrote: "Yes, I flip back to the family trees a lot!

I am finished with Section VI now and I totally loved it. I really LOLed at some sections of it! What did you all think of this section?"

Section VI was even more Dickensy - and my favorite kind, comedic, with a dash of horrible-ness. Posey is such a strange and entertaining character.

Has anyone seen the National Geographic channel's Barkskin series? I don't have cable so I can't watch it, but I looked at the trailer on the imdb website and it looks like it deals with just one of the chapters. Although based on that clip, I have a hard time believing it has much of anything to do with the book. Very little looked familiar to me.

Nadine wrote: "Section VI was even more Dickensy - and my favorite kind, comedic, with a dash of horrible-ness. Posey is such a strange and entertaining character."

Ha, ha! Yes! This made me laugh out loud. It perfectly sums up this section. You just know that when things seem to be going well for a character the chair is about to be pulled from under them.

These two sections went a little more quickly. I have never been in a white pine forest but I definitely felt compelled to go look at some pictures, but I bet that's not the same as standing in one. I live near the WNC forests that include a lot of pine, so that's as close as I've come!

Gosh this is such a contradictory book. Part V was a journey through the forests of North East America and Canada and the lumber industry with such vivid descriptions of the itinerant and dangerous nature of the work. The writing is very evocative and I could easily imagine the drama of a log flow being stuck and the danger of the axe. The suggestion of homosexuality in the relationship of jinot and franceway is subtly done although signposted by jinot's ability to charm girls and I also liked the interrelationships of brothers and half brothers albeit sometimes, despite the family tree , struggling to identify the individuals.
The story of Beatrix and kuntaw is also interesting. It seems as though kuntaw draws away from Beatrix when she adopts his grandchildren and her decline in older age is very sad.
Then I picked up part VI and as others have commented felt I had moved into a 19th century comedy part dickens, part defoe and moll flinders with a character in posey who is sexually voracious and also violent but with the hint of paternal sexual abuse in the background.
What I am struggling with is however is the very episodic nature of the book but as we flit between extremes of story themes it is unusual. As others have commented the fact that I am dipping into the book with gaps between picking it up again may be adding to the fragmentary feel to the experience.
I am however still enjoying each tale which because they are 50-60 pages long with short chapters does not make it feel like hard work and I am certainly taken with the diverse history.

With the marriage to Posey I was just really expecting fireworks to go off—for him to die, be killed, lose his fortune to her, get cut out of the family/business forever, etc. The last thing I imagined was that she would settle down quietly with a baby. Catastrophe felt so imminent that a long calm marriage, until actually described, seemed like an impossibility.

The thing I’m finding about this author, and that I’ve felt with her before, is a sort of elusive quality. As soon as I start to put my finger on something and lock it down for what it is, poof! That something is gone. Nothing left to hold on to.

Alice wrote: "With the marriage to Posey I was just really expecting fireworks to go off.... The last thing I imagined was that she would settle down quietly with a baby. Catastrophe felt so imminent that a long calm marriage, until actually described, seemed like an impossibility.."

I liked the unexpectedness of it, and how the 'calm' was forged on top of a marriage that started out so bizarrely violent - not just Posey's violence, but the hidden murder that made it possible. (Maybe this marriage is James' penance.) I don't think of that marriage and family as calm, exactly. I feel like there's always the danger of bizarreness bursting out of some little hole or chink in the calmness armor. A future chapter in section VIII is titled 'Lavinia', who is their daughter. I can't wait for section VIII to see how this marriage evolved over the years and how Lavinia turned out!

Yes, I’ve just noticed the return to this family as well and am pretty excited to see what develops.

I’ve just finished section VI, yes I’m still behind, but found it so interesting. Yes it was Dickensian and pretty vulgar in a way. The sexuality was violent and the suggested abuse by the father horrifying. He is a trip! What a character. It was such a surprise that they were embraced by the family at the end. Will that turn around? This section was more fun for me to read than section V but still looking forward to VII coming up as soon as I get back home. Currently sitting outside drinking an old fashioned. Last nice weekend of the season??

I'm finding myself more interested in the characters from the Sel family. Although Posey is an interesting character and I thought her relationship with James was well drawn, if unusual. I was surprised, though, about how accepting he was of the "terms and conditions" of their marriage immediately after the wedding.

Laura wrote: "Posey is an interesting character and I thought her relationship with James was well drawn, if unusual. I was surprised, though, about how accepting he was of the "terms and conditions" of their marriage immediately after the wedding.."

I think the 'terms and conditions' were of his making, to, uh, 'tame' Posey.