Happy New Year my girls!
Sorry, the bustle of Shanghai kept me away from the computer and I missed the date I was going to post my thoughts on Part 2. It is probably ok since not all of you have finished yet anyway? Anyway, as we continue to explore this “book club blogging” experience, I am going to try a different format for the topics this time. Many separate posts on different lines of thought...I have loved our discussions but have been bothered by the need to constantly scroll up and down to read everyone’s ideas in sequence. So let’s try this and see what it’s like. I too type in Word and cut and paste so sorry for any strange formatting errors. Let's keep discussing which discussion format is working best for us...
On to the novel...I love the swarm of thoughts that circle in your head upon finishing yet another book. What did you all think?
Overall I felt I was left with so many unknowns. What happened to Erich? Are we to assume he returned to Germany, married the woman mentioned at the statue unveiling and never spoke to his immediate family again? What was Franz’s return like and what exactly happened to his face? What about Delphine? The last time we are allowed into her thoughts she was fretting, consumed by her culture shock in Germany, and then kneeling over her husband as he died. But how did she live out her days? Did she find what she was searching for? Is anyone frustrated by Erdrich’s choice of closing? Was this intentional? Why does she leave so many things undeveloped? (Craig would say, so she could write the companion book telling us all about Cyrian’s marriage, Markus’ life, the butcher shop’s fate, Clarisse’s insanity, haha?!?)
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I loved the book up to the last two or three chapters. I was so distraught over the fact that there are SOOOOOOOO many unfinished stories. It's like we skipped 30 years ahead at the end of the novel, got a brief glimpse of their lives and that was that. I was extremely upset about this.
ReplyDeleteI did like how we got a view of Step and a Half's character and the little plot twist at the end, but it didn't tamper the frustration I felt with the rest of the endings.
I will be surprised if I ever choose to read another one of her novels due to the lack of support the ending had.
I felt like she gave up on writing the last quarter of the book! Starting with after Delphine and Fidelis got married. I felt like she was hinting at some grand passion finally unfolding in Delphine’s life, but then in the next sentence I would be unsure about whether or not they were even sleeping together! It was so frustrating. And her character had been so developed up to that point – did the author just run out of creativity? Are we to assume her emotional development was complete? WHAT HAPPENED?!?!?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to put it Meagan- I also felt as if Delphine was just starting to move somewhere with her personal development, some growth or 'progress' but YES! Erdrich just abandons her...and toward the end of the novel, Delphine had almost zero presence.
ReplyDeleteSometimes authors write with this goal of allowing the reader to fill in the gaps, to round out the story or to assume for themselves what happened. I find this incredibly MADDENING! These are her characters, her stories. I would like her to finish them!
I loved the last 100 pages of the book. I think we had to read the first 300 pages to get the fact Delphiine was so three dimensional. I like how we left her still growing and still developing into this maternal creation.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure about the big skips in the time. Perhaps that was to get to the conclusion of the story. I got to wonder if the author wrote another 400 pages but the publisher had it cut so it could be a more commercial novel.
Hmmm... Interesting thought Kate. It does seem like she had more to day than we got to read...
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