M.B. Prt 2- New format and "huh,is it over?"

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?!?)