The Transatlantic Book Club discussion

Does anyone have any thoughts on the book so far?

well... ^_^

I can't say that I loved this book or even liked it. It was extremely long and very depressing. But I feel that I learned a few historical lessons by reading it. If it weren't for the length of the book, I think it should even be made into required reading.

The problem I mostly had with this book was the dialogue. For some reason I stuttered through the dialogue and it took me longer to read. I think it was due to the fact that I don't really have a clue as to what a southern accent sounds like. I tried to recall what the people in Fried Green Tomatoes sounded like, but I couldn't... and the whole book sounded like a western movie inside my head.

As far as the characters are concerned, I didn't like a single one of them. But I could imagine during those hard times i.e. after the great depression and during the second world war, people were tougher, meaner, more narrow-minded than they are now in this modern age. And I believe that until sometime around the 60's, it was improper for women to... well, think for themselves... own property, be independent, etc. in America. Nowadays we scoff at the countries who do not give their women equal rights. We scoff in disbelief at the people who display prejudice in this 21st century. And yet we did exactly that not even 50 years ago. And those are some of the things I thought about while I read this book.

But to get back to the book... as slow as it was, I think it was mostly about the struggles and conflicts of life. Gertie had a hard life and her only solace was her art... but she had to give that up in the end to support her family. There was the whole gender... women were expected to keep house and listen to the man. There was the prejudice over religion - Catholic vs. Protestant. Prejudice between the races - white vs. black + all other foreigners. Prejudice between city vs. country. And the conflict that made Clovis, a weak self-absorbed man, turn into a murderer... union men vs. company men.

Most of the characters were very straightforward. They had a tough life, tough jobs, they couldn't really dwell on their situation because they would freak out, get drunk, and walk around naked yelling out nonsense like a crazy person. Oh wait... that happened! The characters that confused me the most were Mrs. Daly and Mrs. McKeckran. I didn't know if I should hate Mrs. Daly, like Mrs. Daly, or feel sorry for Mrs. Daly. She was just so full of contradictions. I thought it was a writer's error at times. And I couldn't tell if Mrs. McKeckran was supposed to be some sort of conniving savior type of character or some sort of devil with an apple sort of character. They both really confused me.

All in all, I would recommend this book to read... not because I enjoyed reading it... but because I can see some of life's struggles in a different light... and can enjoy my time here in this 21st century a little more. I have a heater! All I have to do is press a button!