Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Palace at 4 a.m.” reminds the narrator of his father’s new house. Go here and click on the MOMA Multimedia to listen to what the curator has to say about this piece. How do you think this sculpture relates to the relationships in the book?
Of course no one has a warm place to go. There isn't one person whose life improved as a result of the events of this book (well, maybe Ms. Stroud and the widow's lives improved but I wouldn't call their lives warm). And all the lives are fragile. Seems like everyone was building a life that didn't get finished.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I am just going to post a big ole random spew of thoughts. (Was that not the most disgusting visual ever that I so kindly decided to go with??? Sorry)
ReplyDelete• The incoming of the new stepmother.....loved this part. Their description of her "sallow-faced" and "Flat-chested" (not the kindest of things to point
out....although flat-chested has always kind of had its perks for me...HA! No pun intended with the choice of word "perks" HA!)
But I do like that he is fairly wise beyond his years as he can see both sides of the coin. He admits that she probably "got the short end of the stick" but then right away makes it very clear that she was never his mother and although "she made a stab at being a mother for my brother and me, ....We knew what we had had, and we were not going to be taken in any form of counterfeit affection." Now I haven't ever dealt with this personally but I wouldn't be surprised if many people who have would describe this type of feeling towards "countefeit affection" .....perhaps even in really positive experiences there may be this feeling of realizing that now matter how good it is it will never be what you had before. Interesting.
*Oh, the part about him over time losing that picture of his mother in his mind. So sad. He talks of "that retouched photograph that came between me and the face I remember, and it got harder and harder to recall my mother as she really was." This is a fear of mine.... I am always trying to remember feelings, smells, little nuances and quirks about those I love...this is how I want to remember them.
* Larisa. I see you point with a hint towards being on the "sensitive" side. Many times he mentions how he constantly was trying to "keep back tears" as he was spoken to in harshness and he felt that his dad "washed his hands of him" because he wasn't the kind of little boy he wanted him to be.....outdoorsy, athletic, tough, ect. So sad to hear him say "Children simply feel what they feel, and I knew I was not the apple of my father's eye." :( I love the question he poses..."Who know what oversensitive is?" and in a way answers it as he says "considering all there is be sensitive to."
*Brilliant part on page 16. The funeral potato "the taste of that baked potato has remained with me all the rest of my life." It is so funny what remains with us....what memories are the strongest though trials and tragedy. But, this is such a universal thing I think that when we read that we don't stop and think "oh that is weird that the taste of the potato would stick with him" because we all understand because there is something like that in our own past that is similar. (or maybe that is just me and you all are like..weirdo!)
*I too loved the whole "door" image and the idea of if you just walk though it all would be back the way it used to be and if he could just cling to those small things that were still the same then he wouldn't have to actually deal with the truth of what had happened. It is interesting as things continue to change more and more he sees this happening and admits "I clung to them more tightly than ever, even as I was being drawn willy-nilly into my father's new life." (side note: I made a goal to use the phrase willy-nilly this week. so far there has not been an appropriate time. I am wondering if there ever will be so if by Thursday nothing has popped up I will have to just throw it out there in some random conversation sometime. I am laughing right now just thinking about that...I'll let ya know how it goes :)
*I thought a lot about the question that Larisa posed as to why, if the boys only had such a short time with eachother, he felt such guilt. Here is what I came up with. I believe that compassion is something that is innate, something that we are given so that we in some way can comprehend what a greater-being out there feels on our behalf. I think it is a beautiful thing that we can feel so viserally (sp??) and physically on behalf of another.... we literally can ache for those around us, whether we have a deep relationship or we hear about their life/story in a newspaper article. Pretty amazing and I think it just makes us human. To know that someone out there has suffered, and because we have all suffered to some degree, to not be able to fix that or help that in some way (as he felt he could have by acknowledging him in the hall...that was the one way he felt he could have helped and he didn't take the chance and that is where the guilt comes in. He knows he didn't cause the pain and he knows he couldn't have changed anything that had happened to Cletus, but this he could have done....and didn't. Guilt is a beast!)
ReplyDelete* Ahhh, the wonderful theme of adultry. we see things start to stir as he (Lloyd) describes his wife. Wouldn't any woman just be so thrilled to get this kind of praise. "she worked like a slave, holding up her end of things. She was a good mother. Sometimes he thought they were so used to each other. If they had been brother and sister it wouldn't have been very different." Well thank you husband, glad to know that I am a sturdy worker! Reminds me of a time when my brother was getting married and my sister and I did a video question game for her shower. We asked my brother questions on video and then played it at the shower. Anyway, one of the questions was "what do love about Angie?" His brilliant answer..."she is a really hard worker" my sister and I yelled CUT CUT CUT! We were like, seriously, bro??? You want her to think the reason you are in love with her is because of her work ethic???? Anyway, we set him straight and the next take was much better....can't remember the exact thing he came up with but it definitly wasn't anything to do with her "thrift" or "hard work" or "sturdy child bearing hips!" Okay, sorry, that was one crazy long tangent.
*I loved the description of the court scene. I love that people once had to prove they deserved a divorce.... like put on a trial about their spouses rottenness. Funny. matt laughed too.
*Justification is an awesome thing. That poor little cheatin' lady is pretty good at too.
*I loved loved loved how he starts the telling of the details of the story by having the reader do some "imagining" and how for a few pages (starts of 56) he is talking in those type of terms... such as "imagine a deck of cards" and "let us consider" and "another card, from the same pack" anyway, slowly this leaves the writing and pretty soon you are just completely immersed in the "true" story of how things went down, even though you know (because the narrator tells us) that he is kind of filling in the gaps and telling it the only way he has been able to piece it together which is coming from some not very reliable sources.) Anyway, so interesting that we are drawn in so easily....perhaps an insight into the way we are so taken by the media in our own day and age. They said it...must be true.
Oh there is just so much more. I would love to just sit and talk about everything in this book...all the little snarky phrases and hidden (yet very obvious and plain) insights into life in general that just hit home on such a basic level.
I may have time a little later to post a few more things and respond to a few of the questions directly.... gotta go finally move the clothes to the dryer...I have washed them three times because I let them sit so long they got all smelly again.
Thanks for all the fabulous comments.... I loved reading all of them!!!
Casey
I agree... there's so much to talk about! I have passages underlined on every other page, at least. I have some things I want to post separately about... but like yours, they'll have to wait. At least until tomorrow, that is. Good night, all!
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