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Post by Bara on Jun 25, 2007 13:15:35 GMT -5
I think she is brave beyond words to make the choice she did, at the age she did, in the era she did... It is clear that she has a connection with horses. Which of us, at 17 - could resist August in all his splendour, offering her a life of glamour and horses and eternal love? She was just a child.
How could she spot the under-side of August? Did I? At my age? But I didn't have to defy my convention to do it. How much harder to admit you are wrong at (22? Was she?) In the depression. Her character is not explored. She is presented as two-dimensional. 'Loves horses'. 'Married to an abuser'.
But - she meets someone. The story from the 90-yr-old Jacob just touches on 'my wife and children'.
Wouldn't it be good, to hear Marlene's story as a wife and mother? Did they have horses? Were they rich/poor? Do the children ride? Do the children even know about their parents' circus past?
;D
And it comes back to bite you. So what's new/old?
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Post by Lynne on Jun 25, 2007 17:17:00 GMT -5
Bara...........you're brilliant. Insightful. Alive. Once bitten tiwce shy....I think she has kids with horses  Wish we'd read it simultaneously though....N need the details to discuss! |
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Post by Lynne on Jun 25, 2007 17:21:00 GMT -5
OH! And....sorry...should never have a book discussion if you haven't read it recently ....BUT....what was thye insight as to her background? Wasn't she from a
"battered" background? I wish I remembered the details. I know I dug her..(she who slept with horses) abut I know the whole scene wasnt' cohesive. I guess that's why I loved the ending. End with pasion.
Otherwise you just end. And what ending is that?
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Post by Lynne on Jun 25, 2007 17:30:21 GMT -5
Thanks!Missed this.
"pathetic grandeur" Damn....isnt that a novel in itself? Obviously it is. I think it describes half of me. "pathetic"....heheh. Okay, seriously....he was pathietic....if you call it that. I'll taike "distruaght", "distressed", "beaten" when he went wandering to the tracks. And, perhaps the tracks themselves say something. Haven't we all felt like the train was coming? On the brinks (bankds) despair....hmmm.....pontificating here.....as he sat, squallored he had that choice....take the train and ride or get off the ride all together. Maybe that was the plight of everyone..animals include. Take the ride.
hmmmm.........sorry....
And also:
To what extent do the chapters concerning the elderly Jacob enhance the chapters recounting the young Jacob's experiences with the Benzini Brothers circus? In what ways do the chapters about the young Jacob contribute to a deeper understanding of the elderly Jacob's life?
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Post by Bara on Jun 26, 2007 5:31:19 GMT -5
'Brilliant' - 'Insightful' - 'Alive' - Lynne, you are most certainly welcome at the Gingerbread House. Though your judgement is to be questioned ... But we KNOW that - purple pianos! ;D We neeeed Annnnn!!! What I took from old Jacob/young Jacob was probably extremely personal. i.e. that vitality, that passion, that experience and history - is still there, inside. Overlaid by a lifetime of obfuscation, day-to-day. Overlaid with failing health, failing body. But somewhere, it seems to me, that young Jacob is still alive. Look at the end and how he suddenly remembers WHO he is. Takes that giant 'step' - although 'wheel' is more appropriate, not realising that this will bring him full circle to the appropriate ending to his young beginning. Oh, golly gosh. That sounds so pedantic and precious... LOL! I know what I mean! I shall pay Ms Gruen the courtesy of looking up Genesis - and the story of Jacob. It is soooo long since I actually had to analyse a book I've read - I've forgotten how. I LOFF our book club!  |
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Post by Lynne on Jun 26, 2007 10:19:08 GMT -5
You make sense to me too Bara. But I tried to reread what I wrote (it made sense to me at the time) and it makes NO SENSE. LOL
You are right though. He's still him. True to self. Interesting......
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