The Echo Maker: Discussion

Although the book was a bumpy ride for some--the best parts were end of the beginning and the end?;  the talk flowed in a steady stream--evenly balanced between negative and positive comments.  What follows are a few remembered comments.

The repetitiveness of The Echo Maker left some of us thinking the author was being self-indulgent--pouring out all of his deep scientific knowledge about the brain, birds, land use--without editing to help the reader.  "Everything thrown in ( including or but) the kitchen sink."

Seesaw to the idea that some of the characters were really delightful--Mark and his friends in particular.  One member said that she was happy to read a book with characters who were NICE for a change.

And...
It is rare and refreshing for a book to be about siblings.

What made the meeting really fun, was the collaborative unraveling and dissecting of the themes in Echo Maker:   Some remembered...

1.  Not only the brain injured suffer from delusions.  After 9/11 Americans have bought into delusions that led us into two wars, torture, detention camps.  We all still get electronic news proving that the Pentagon wasn't hit by an airplane.

2.  Like a number of characters in this novel, we all feel inauthentic at times--we are our own doubles-- an echo of  our true selves.

3.  We are facing the inevitable ruin of our planet by the greedy and the powerful and the corrupt.


Some links:

New York Times Review

The Guardian Review

Richard Powers Website

Gilgamesh Made More Readable...

Reminder that the March book is not just any old Gilgamesh...it is the version by Stephen Mitchell.  Don't show up with your old college version and think you can talk myths at the March meeting. ( February is In the Garden of the Beasts..)

Caleb's Crossing: Discussion 12/19/21

An engrossing good read that brought you on a crossing to another time.  Or an engrossing good read that seemed more  like a novel for young adults.  Opinions differed about how successful the author was at pulling you in emotionally and there lay the split. Yet all continued reading.

Bethia's plot driven life story and crossing dominated instead of the historical Caleb's  crossing. Too difficult to get into the head of a young Wampanoag boy turned scholar of classics?  The life story of Bethia,  the fictitious character, seemed too contrived--too shallow--to be believable.  Her voice stayed that of a young girl, even though she is looking back as an older woman. The best developed "characters" to some were the places--especially Martha's Vineyard.

Those who didn't feel that positive about the book and  who read other Geraldine Brooks' works; i.e., March, Year of Wonders, and People of the Book, were surprised and felt that this was the weakest of her novels.

Oh by the way:

We are proud that one of our members is a direct descendant of John and Priscilla Alden, despite their poor showing in this novel. (Taliban of the 1670s as the sponsor mentioned.)

And we had our first grab bag of gently read books...I got Swamplandia.  Not a great review, but I am looking forward to reading it!

 Members: Send me your book title  and I will  link them to a review.

Another Old List...this one is from 2006-2007

Click on title for links to reviews, etc.

On Beauty 
 Zadie Smith

The Sea
John Banville

The History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters
Julian Barnes

Founding Brothers
Joseph Ellis

The History of Love
Nicole Krauss

Midaq Alley
Mahfouz

So Long, See You Tomorrow
William Maxwell

The Thread of Grace
Mary Russell

The Liberated Bride
A. Yehoshua and H. Halkin

Beyond Black
Hillary Mantel

Next up...Caleb's Crossing

PREVIEW BOOK

New York Times Review

Tinkers

The following is the gist of the discussion...

Tinkers--the story of three generations of men--a preacher--a tinker of words; his son a tinker of pots and peddler of wares; and his son--a tinker who puts together a house and clocks is the first published novel of Paul Harding. (Another novel was discarded and this one was pieced together--tinkered--much like a soldered tin pot.) 

Mixed experiences reading this book even for the members who overall liked the novel.  Sections on the workings of clocks were difficult to get through and most skimmed or skipped over them.  The lack of action  and  lack of clarity was bothersome for some as well.  The peddler experiences in nature also were irksome to read for some.  Perhaps these were the very objections that led to rejection after rejection by publishing companies before Bellevue Press printed  it.

What made this book worthwhile?  The poetic language, the characters, the amazingly realistic capturing of the random thoughts of a man on his death bed. The ending--a Rosebud moment--poignantly moving.

But was this book worthy of a Pulitzer Prize?  Probably not was the majority feeling.  This, a first novel, seemed heavily influenced by the writing style of Harding's mentor...Marilynne Robinson  also a Pulitzer Winner.  A Pulitzer should reward a published established writer who has a body of work and a unique style --a unique voice expressed one member and others agreed. 

Thanks to smart phones we were able to hear a list of previous Pulitzer winners many of which we agreed were given to writers who fit our groups' definition.  Browse for yourself...

Pulitzer Prize Winners 

*Still...on reading the cover...it turns out that this books has been named one of the  best books or notable book of the year by NPR, the New Yorker, Granta, ALA, etc. So....

*Added by the sponsor of the book and this blogger....

And this is added by BB who came late to the meeting...

Harding said in an interview that he was reading Karl Barth, the prominent Protestant theologian of the 20th century who wrote, among other topics, on revelation. Whether a believer or not, the fiction writer has a handy tool in revelation--a God's eye view, so to speak. In the final summing-up of George's life, pieces are fitting together in his mind like the works of a clock. Some of those pieces were not actually known to George previously—his grandfather’s dementia and banishment, for instance—but are now revealed to him. (1 Corinthians 13:12: "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.") Is the reader to believe that as George hovers between this world and eternity, he's seeing God face to face? And is the point of this book that the final stage of life, dying, has value? 

Marilynne Robinson, Harding's mentor, has a big interest in theology, as I think does Harding.

Tinkers by Paul Harding

Click to read about how Harding's book got printed:  Tinkers