Deep Underground Book Club
The_Silly_Sibyl said:Thank you for keeping up with this, Anna. I’ve been slow due to distractions caused by coursework, but have instituted reading it in bed each night.
Does the main character bring to mind any real-world crimes or criminals you’re familiar with?
I’ve dropped off the past few days... but yes, he reminds me of Ed kemper in his inability to shut the fuck up and his painting of himself as a romantic victimised villain
Does the main character bring to mind any real-world crimes or criminals you’re familiar with?
I’ve dropped off the past few days... but yes, he reminds me of Ed kemper in his inability to shut the fuck up and his painting of himself as a romantic victimised villain
Ahavati said:Speaking of frames. . .and because I am up to my elbows in class assignment reading which may be the death of me . . .
By the way, if anyone’s interested, The Book of Evidence is the first in a somewhat loose trilogy (or triptych, in the author’s description) of novels continuing with Ghosts and ending with Athena.
Ghosts is a slightly more abstract story about a group of travellers shipwrecked on an island in the Irish Sea, where they meet a professor, his assistant, and a character referred to only as “Little God” but who is in fact Freddie Montgomery, antihero of Evidence. Freddie recounts his life after prison.
Athena dives into fantasy territory with a plot involving a woman stepping out of a painting, references to Greek mythology, and a serial killer.
By the way, if anyone’s interested, The Book of Evidence is the first in a somewhat loose trilogy (or triptych, in the author’s description) of novels continuing with Ghosts and ending with Athena.
Ghosts is a slightly more abstract story about a group of travellers shipwrecked on an island in the Irish Sea, where they meet a professor, his assistant, and a character referred to only as “Little God” but who is in fact Freddie Montgomery, antihero of Evidence. Freddie recounts his life after prison.
Athena dives into fantasy territory with a plot involving a woman stepping out of a painting, references to Greek mythology, and a serial killer.
Anonymous
Ahavati said:
Just HELL to the no!
Mwuahaha!
The_Silly_Sibyl said:
By the way, if anyone’s interested, The Book of Evidence is the first in a somewhat loose trilogy (or triptych, in the author’s description) of novels continuing with Ghosts and ending with Athena.
Ghosts is a slightly more abstract story about a group of travellers shipwrecked on an island in the Irish Sea, where they meet a professor, his assistant, and a character referred to only as “Little God” but who is in fact Freddie Montgomery, antihero of Evidence. Freddie recounts his life after prison.
Athena dives into fantasy territory with a plot involving a woman stepping out of a painting, references to Greek mythology, and a serial killer.
I read that book already. It was titled Rose Madder.
Just HELL to the no!
Mwuahaha!
The_Silly_Sibyl said:
By the way, if anyone’s interested, The Book of Evidence is the first in a somewhat loose trilogy (or triptych, in the author’s description) of novels continuing with Ghosts and ending with Athena.
Ghosts is a slightly more abstract story about a group of travellers shipwrecked on an island in the Irish Sea, where they meet a professor, his assistant, and a character referred to only as “Little God” but who is in fact Freddie Montgomery, antihero of Evidence. Freddie recounts his life after prison.
Athena dives into fantasy territory with a plot involving a woman stepping out of a painting, references to Greek mythology, and a serial killer.
I read that book already. It was titled Rose Madder.
JohnnyBlaze said:
I read that book already. It was titled Rose Madder.
I recall Rose Madder as one of three books King’s cited as ones he dislikes from his own work, the other two being Insomnia and Dreamcatcher. He describes the former two as “stiff, trying-too-hard novels." I haven’t read Madder, but I think I may have read the short story he expanded it from in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
I read that book already. It was titled Rose Madder.
I recall Rose Madder as one of three books King’s cited as ones he dislikes from his own work, the other two being Insomnia and Dreamcatcher. He describes the former two as “stiff, trying-too-hard novels." I haven’t read Madder, but I think I may have read the short story he expanded it from in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
Anonymous
The_Silly_Sibyl said:
I recall Rose Madder as one of three books King’s cited as ones he dislikes from his own work, the other two being Insomnia and Dreamcatcher. He describes the former two as “stiff, trying-too-hard novels." I haven’t read Madder, but I think I may have read the short story he expanded it from in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
I heard that too. His main reason for disliking Dreamcatcher ( which was one of his best ) was that he wrote it while on painkillers after the hit n run with the van.
I recall Rose Madder as one of three books King’s cited as ones he dislikes from his own work, the other two being Insomnia and Dreamcatcher. He describes the former two as “stiff, trying-too-hard novels." I haven’t read Madder, but I think I may have read the short story he expanded it from in Nightmares & Dreamscapes.
I heard that too. His main reason for disliking Dreamcatcher ( which was one of his best ) was that he wrote it while on painkillers after the hit n run with the van.
JohnnyBlaze said:
I heard that too. His main reason for disliking Dreamcatcher ( which was one of his best ) was that he wrote it while on painkillers after the hit n run with the van.
Someone else told me they really liked it as well. With lots of writers it seems to be that the work they like least is the stuff readers like best, and vice versa. It happens a LOT. Like how Evelyn Waugh thought that his best book was a historical piece about St Helena, but it’s one of his least known and generally regarded as mediocre. Same with Faulkner and A Fable, and King himself and Lisey’s Story.
I heard that too. His main reason for disliking Dreamcatcher ( which was one of his best ) was that he wrote it while on painkillers after the hit n run with the van.
Someone else told me they really liked it as well. With lots of writers it seems to be that the work they like least is the stuff readers like best, and vice versa. It happens a LOT. Like how Evelyn Waugh thought that his best book was a historical piece about St Helena, but it’s one of his least known and generally regarded as mediocre. Same with Faulkner and A Fable, and King himself and Lisey’s Story.
Anonymous
The_Silly_Sibyl said:
Someone else told me they really liked it as well. With lots of writers it seems to be that the work they like least is the stuff readers like best, and vice versa. It happens a LOT. Like how Evelyn Waugh thought that his best book was a historical piece about St Helena, but it’s one of his least known and generally regarded as mediocre. Same with Faulkner and A Fable, and King himself and Lisey’s Story.
Same rings true with poets.
OMG I could not tolerate more than 50 pages of Lisey's Story before shelving it. Never had the urge to revisit. When your English speaking characters are having conversations that you have to follow up with dumbed down English translations, you've accidentally stumbled into and broken the Fifth Wall with a skull too thick for your own good.
Someone else told me they really liked it as well. With lots of writers it seems to be that the work they like least is the stuff readers like best, and vice versa. It happens a LOT. Like how Evelyn Waugh thought that his best book was a historical piece about St Helena, but it’s one of his least known and generally regarded as mediocre. Same with Faulkner and A Fable, and King himself and Lisey’s Story.
Same rings true with poets.
OMG I could not tolerate more than 50 pages of Lisey's Story before shelving it. Never had the urge to revisit. When your English speaking characters are having conversations that you have to follow up with dumbed down English translations, you've accidentally stumbled into and broken the Fifth Wall with a skull too thick for your own good.
JohnnyBlaze said:
Same rings true with poets.
OMG I could not tolerate more than 50 pages of Lisey's Story before shelving it. Never had the urge to revisit. When your English speaking characters are having conversations that you have to follow up with dumbed down English translations, you've accidentally stumbled into and broken the Fifth Wall with a skull too thick for your own good.
That’s really interesting, because I was going to add to my original comment that for a long time Lisey’s Story was my favourite King book, and might still be. (It’s been too long since I’ve read it to be certain. It may have been supplanted by It.)
I can certainly see why a lot of fans dislike it. It has that King habit of going on and on about a character or moment, taking it on a thousand different tangents, best exemplified in a scene I recall where Lisey tackles a would-be assassin of her husband. In the real-time of the story the action covers maybe ten seconds of Lisey running up to and braining the guy with a shovel, but King stretches it out over fifty pages of reminiscence about how that point was reached from every angle you can think of.
Yet I loved the book on reading it and was never bored or frustrated. I thought that it was a fantastic study of a woman who lived in the shadow of a great but troubled man and must live with the consequences of his life and death, and also who learns the dark secret behind his creative energy. I thought the subplot about the deranged fan was terrific, and the otherworldly stuff captivating (if not ultimately explained in satisfying detail).
Same rings true with poets.
OMG I could not tolerate more than 50 pages of Lisey's Story before shelving it. Never had the urge to revisit. When your English speaking characters are having conversations that you have to follow up with dumbed down English translations, you've accidentally stumbled into and broken the Fifth Wall with a skull too thick for your own good.
That’s really interesting, because I was going to add to my original comment that for a long time Lisey’s Story was my favourite King book, and might still be. (It’s been too long since I’ve read it to be certain. It may have been supplanted by It.)
I can certainly see why a lot of fans dislike it. It has that King habit of going on and on about a character or moment, taking it on a thousand different tangents, best exemplified in a scene I recall where Lisey tackles a would-be assassin of her husband. In the real-time of the story the action covers maybe ten seconds of Lisey running up to and braining the guy with a shovel, but King stretches it out over fifty pages of reminiscence about how that point was reached from every angle you can think of.
Yet I loved the book on reading it and was never bored or frustrated. I thought that it was a fantastic study of a woman who lived in the shadow of a great but troubled man and must live with the consequences of his life and death, and also who learns the dark secret behind his creative energy. I thought the subplot about the deranged fan was terrific, and the otherworldly stuff captivating (if not ultimately explained in satisfying detail).
Anonymous
The_Silly_Sibyl said:
That’s really interesting, because I was going to add to my original comment that for a long time Lisey’s Story was my favourite King book, and might still be. (It’s been too long since I’ve read it to be certain. It may have been supplanted by It.)
I can certainly see why a lot of fans dislike it. It has that King habit of going on and on about a character or moment, taking it on a thousand different tangents, best exemplified in a scene I recall where Lisey tackles a would-be assassin of her husband. In the real-time of the story the action covers maybe ten seconds of Lisey running up to and braining the guy with a shovel, but King stretches it out over fifty pages of reminiscence about how that point was reached from every angle you can think of.
Yet I loved the book on reading it and was never bored or frustrated. I thought that it was a fantastic study of a woman who lived in the shadow of a great but troubled man and must live with the consequences of his life and death, and also who learns the dark secret behind his creative energy. I thought the subplot about the deranged fan was terrific, and the otherworldly stuff captivating (if not ultimately explained in satisfying detail).
I may have to give it another try someday when I'm not being uber critical.
Dolores Claiborne took 50 pages to pick up steam, but I stuck with it, and it paid off. Duma Key I bailed on after 75 pages of no prospect of any steam whatsoever.
I loved The Shining, but Doctor Sleep I put aside midway through when the supernatural was no longer super, but eh just another day.
That’s really interesting, because I was going to add to my original comment that for a long time Lisey’s Story was my favourite King book, and might still be. (It’s been too long since I’ve read it to be certain. It may have been supplanted by It.)
I can certainly see why a lot of fans dislike it. It has that King habit of going on and on about a character or moment, taking it on a thousand different tangents, best exemplified in a scene I recall where Lisey tackles a would-be assassin of her husband. In the real-time of the story the action covers maybe ten seconds of Lisey running up to and braining the guy with a shovel, but King stretches it out over fifty pages of reminiscence about how that point was reached from every angle you can think of.
Yet I loved the book on reading it and was never bored or frustrated. I thought that it was a fantastic study of a woman who lived in the shadow of a great but troubled man and must live with the consequences of his life and death, and also who learns the dark secret behind his creative energy. I thought the subplot about the deranged fan was terrific, and the otherworldly stuff captivating (if not ultimately explained in satisfying detail).
I may have to give it another try someday when I'm not being uber critical.
Dolores Claiborne took 50 pages to pick up steam, but I stuck with it, and it paid off. Duma Key I bailed on after 75 pages of no prospect of any steam whatsoever.
I loved The Shining, but Doctor Sleep I put aside midway through when the supernatural was no longer super, but eh just another day.
My favorite book is infinite jest by David Foster Wallace, has anyone read it?
The untrained reader, having skimmed the key points of Wallace's biography, will (probably) be very surprised to see the suicide note at the very end. Indeed, a short retelling of the life of the Far Eastern Federal University looks as if we are talking about the most successful writer of the twentieth century.
A child from a professorial family (Father is a philosopher, professor at the University of Illinois. Mother is an English teacher, professor at Parkland College in Champaign), who grew up within the walls of a house with a huge library. A boy whose parents read Joyce's Ulysses before going to bed (!). It is difficult to think of more suitable conditions for a future genius. And then - everything is in the same spirit: an excellent student, a medalist, but not just a bespectacled man with books at the ready, no, he is also a successful, promising tennis player.
Then - the university, and again the surname "Wallace" is invariably in the first line of the grades lists. An expert on Wittgenstein, he writes his thesis, which (under the influence of Pynchon's books) gradually develops into the first novel The broom of the system.
The untrained reader, having skimmed the key points of Wallace's biography, will (probably) be very surprised to see the suicide note at the very end. Indeed, a short retelling of the life of the Far Eastern Federal University looks as if we are talking about the most successful writer of the twentieth century.
A child from a professorial family (Father is a philosopher, professor at the University of Illinois. Mother is an English teacher, professor at Parkland College in Champaign), who grew up within the walls of a house with a huge library. A boy whose parents read Joyce's Ulysses before going to bed (!). It is difficult to think of more suitable conditions for a future genius. And then - everything is in the same spirit: an excellent student, a medalist, but not just a bespectacled man with books at the ready, no, he is also a successful, promising tennis player.
Then - the university, and again the surname "Wallace" is invariably in the first line of the grades lists. An expert on Wittgenstein, he writes his thesis, which (under the influence of Pynchon's books) gradually develops into the first novel The broom of the system.
