posted by Twanna A. Hines | FUNKYBROWNCHICK.com at
5:27 AM
Fed up with a traditional book club where few people were showing up for meetings anymore and even fewer were reading the books, we decided to form an online group. This way, we can have an actual, well thought-out conversation about a novel or book and nobody even has to clean their house.
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Life of Pi by Yann Martel |
| Make suggestions in the comments of any post! |
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Down Came the Rain: My Journey Through Postpartum Depression by Brooke Shields |
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The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler |
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Devil in the White City by Erik Larson |
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Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides |
4 Comments:
It's killing me that I had to return the book to the library already. I may go check it back out, because I want to quote from it and look stuff up.
From the top of my head, what struck me about these two was their perceptions of themselves and how that colored their lives. Burnham didn't get into his choice of college and spent his life feeling second-rate and working hard to compensate, although he was clearly very talented. Holmes seemed to think he was smarter than everyone else and used his talent to fade into the woodwork and be evil instead of trying to shine like Burnham.
Granted, they had very different agendas. And there's something else I want to say here that I just can't get a grip on without going back to the book. Is this making sense? Anyone have anything to add?
By
mamashine, at 1:40 PM
The opening Title for first Section "Aboard the Olympic"... says it all. It sets the tone right away; you get the feeling that Burnham was going to be involved in the story of The Fair and of Holmes much the same way he was involved with the Olympic and the Titanic... not directly related but affected just the same.
Burnham's character is revealed in the line “Burnham had chosen this ship, the R.M.S. Olympic of the White Star Line, because it was new and glamorous and big."
(Akin the THE FAIR?)
Holmes character can be summed up in the first sentence on page 11. "HOW EASY IT WAS TO DISSAPPEAR". I think that this was an indicator of many things. How easy it was for multitudes of strangers to disappear in the city of Chicago, how easy it was for Holmes to lure his victims in; how easy it was for the law enforcement to not see what was happening, how easy it was for Holmes to play everyone he came in contact with.
How easy it was.
Other first impressions:
Burnham was dignified and upper class but did not feel that way; Holmes felt that way but was not.
Burnham tended to be abrupt - the Northern way of "get directly to the point"...page 4: "Burnham demanded that the steward return to the wireless room for an explanation"
The description of Holmes in the train station page 33:"Despite the heat Holmes looked fresh and crisp. As he moved through the stations, the glances of young women fell around him like wind-blown petals."
How soft and breezy this description makes me feel... like la... la.. la... just a cute guy with charisma..... I think that Larson does a good job of writing these descriptions so that subconsciously we get a feeling for the characters - without realizing it.
By
E, at 10:14 PM
Wow! GREAT comments, guys!!!
My impression was/is that the two men both had tasks that they wanted to perform and they were very driven and single-minded in their attempted to accomplish them. I had the feeling that neither would let anything stop their attempts ...
By
Twanna A. Hines | FUNKYBROWNCHICK.com, at 5:08 AM
I second Stolie here ... these are great insights. I really like how y'all see these guys. Let me think of something half-way intelligent to add!
By
JenniNapa, at 12:11 PM
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