Sweeping Sagas discussion

Karla is starting this now and I'll be catching up as soon as my hold from the library comes in.

Based on what I've read so far, this is a great book with a protagonist that I've really gotten behind. The detail is precise but not ponderous, if that makes sense. I'm really seeing the world through Lily's eyes. Awesome!

I'm on page 120 now and really enjoying it. I just love Lily, and despite her gentle/pure nature she's not gagging me as a pollyanna type of charcter. I am enjoying the details as well, and surprisingly well done in the clothing/jewelry areas to name two considering it's a male author (now you all know what I mean I hope).

Granted it is still early going, but I am very glad you *discovered* this little gem Karla. This is how books are supposed to be written.

That's what surprised me - she is a NICE person and she's devout in her own way. The Catholic guilt she carries around with her never got annoying, which REALLY shocked me. I guess she was so well-written and everything "fit" that it was simply a part of a very real and interesting person. If more Christian lit had that faith aspect so well integrated into the whole, it'd be a genre with wider appeal and at the same time be higher quality as well.

Karla (Mossy Love Grotto) wrote: "That's what surprised me - she is a NICE person and she's devout in her own way. The Catholic guilt she carries around with her never got annoying, which REALLY shocked me. I guess she was so well-..."

Oh, I agree some of the CF I've seen could really do with a dose of writing like this. I'd read more of it too.

I'm the same way, I keep expecting to get annoyed at her pure innocent nature but I can't. I'm just catching up here at GR and elsewhere and then I'm off to read some more. I nodded off just before I think she meets her worst fate at the hands of the young master...

This sounds really good.

Moppet wrote: "This sounds really good."

I'm thinking this will be right up your alley Moppet. I plan on putting a big dent in this today as soon as I return from the gym. Bag the housework :)

I'm a bit surprised at Jack's character. Going into the book I expected more a a desolute seducer. Well perhaps he is that, but there's more underneath the surface and he does seem to care for Lily.

I don't want to give too much away, but he'd probably have remained merely a cynical and honest drunk if he always had money.

Karla (Mossy Love Grotto) wrote: "I don't want to give too much away, but he'd probably have remained merely a cynical and honest drunk if he always had money."

*rubs hands with glee*

No, don't tell me.

I'll zip it! :-X

I liked the detail of the voyage around the Horn. Usually I read about in the context of the British Navy, so it was interesting to see it from the angle of civilian passengers on a clipper ship.

Just did one of those in this one.

I am thinking the business enterprise with Fergie may not be such a bed of roses in the end.

It'd be tough to stay loyal to a brother like that, but it does pay off in the end - bittersweetly, natch.

Karla (Mossy Love Grotto) wrote: "It'd be tough to stay loyal to a brother like that, but it does pay off in the end - bittersweetly, natch."

I hope Lily stays smart and keeps on turning him down.

I have to agree with you as to the ease of Katie's acceptance of Lily as mother and morphing into the main household. A bit too pat, but still a minor quibble compared to the overall story.

Just finished up with Brooks returning home. After witnessing his brother's you-know-what and then to come home to that (although we knew something like that was coming).

(view spoiler)[Just finished. What a grand ride this was. I was so glad that Lily and Brooks and many happy years together before the earthquake and why, oh why did he think it so important to go checking up on things down the hill anyway? Oh that was so sad, especially as he thought back to riding up to the ranch and Lily. Gawd what a love story.

Fergus' end was sad as well, but as you said very bittersweet. (hide spoiler)]

All in all a damn fine read that should appeal to anyone loving a big ole' rags to riches saga.

(view spoiler)[Because like any 70-something fart, even when the world's coming down around his ears, he wants to feel like he's not sitting around helpless. *sniff* (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[I know, I was just screaming don't go don't go! Whatever is there, it isn't important at all. I have to say though, I was really afraid he was going to bite the bullet a lot earlier in life, so I was glad they had had such a long happy marriage. I just adored it when he met her and was so smitted, despite being so badly burned by that bitch Caroline.

Did you buy into her reasoning not to tell Brooks about Kate's father? (hide spoiler)]

(view spoiler)[If her reasoning IIRC was that she didn't want to hurt him by telling him that his "friend" Jack had managed to nail both of his loves, then yes, I did buy it. (hide spoiler)]

The only thing I sort of screwed my face up about was the pat transition with Kate from aunt to mommy. Other than that, I bought everything else hook, line and sinker.

Good point. I had the same issue with Kate's quick transition but otherwise a damn near perfect read.

The theme I took away from the book is that life is uncertain and no matter how hard you work to build yourself a safe little fortress and man the towers vigilantly, all that can get swiped away by pure chance (view spoiler)[in this case, a drunk soldier who's in a mood to shoot something (hide spoiler)]. It was all very fatalistic and depressing, but I dunno....uplifting? A good life lived. It's not how you die, it's how you live. And all that. AND stay true to who you are no matter where you find yourself in life. Both Lily and Brooks did.

(view spoiler)[Oh, that damn drunk soldier. But yes, they both lived a great life and no one can live forever and often times these things happen in the blink of an eye. (hide spoiler)]

I have to say that Lily is going to stay with me for a while as a character. She always kept her honest and pure nature, yet it wasn't annoying or pollyanish in anyway at all.(view spoiler)[Many a lesser woman would have let the greed and bitterness take over and kept on whoring as long as men would pay. (hide spoiler)]

I think it was more women like Lily who "tamed" the West rather than the Upright Citizens' Brigade types with their temperance crusades and bible-thumping.

She was quite a woman, and lucky for you-know-who to have found her.