Elmet - Jan 2022 Book Group discussion thread
8 watchers
Jan 2022
10:57am, 31 Jan 2022
5,660 posts
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westmoors
Finished this last night. I quite enjoyed it, even though some of the subject matter wasn't very palatable. There were a lot of unanswered questions: what happened to the mother? who was Vivien? why was the money stolen? what happened to the dogs? is Cathy alive? I guess these are intentional as the story was told from Daniel's perspective and he didn't know. |
Jan 2022
9:16pm, 31 Jan 2022
21,564 posts
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Columba
Indeed, did Daniel himself survive beyond the end of the story?
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Feb 2022
11:41pm, 26 Feb 2022
25,415 posts
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Serendippily
I enjoyed this for the first third. Then it started to feel like I was starting to wade through gloom and foreboding and that the story was driven by A Message From The Author For Which The Story Was A Mere Vehicle. I’m not so keen on that and I stalled for a month. I finished it off tonight and on consideration quite enjoyed it. Gave it a 7 because it put me off reading for a bit
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Feb 2022
7:33am, 27 Feb 2022
53,175 posts
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LindsD
Gloom and foreboding. Yes
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Feb 2022
8:41am, 27 Feb 2022
46,642 posts
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Bintmcskint
I keep forgetting to add my bit here! Mixed feelings towards it, TBH. It kept me reading. I wanted to know what happened next and I quite liked the writing. It didn't bother me that the boy was far more articulate on the page than he would have been in real life. Happy to allow for poetic licence on that one. What did irritate me was "My Daddy" which might have been more realistic than some of the other language he used but which had me thinking, "If he says My Daddy one more time I will slap his face clean off."  It didn't matter to me that the book ended without me knowing their full back story or what the future held. I guess that's like life. BUT, as others have said, I did feel it got grim for the sake of being grim at times. My biggest beef was the big scene in the cottage where the sister comes in like a naked Terminator and wreaks all kinds of havoc and violence. At that point, it lost me. It still winds me up and this is weeks later *rolls eyes at self* All this being said, I gave it a 7 |
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Feb 2022
10:10pm, 27 Feb 2022
25,423 posts
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Serendippily
It was like the terminator at the end. I rather enjoyed that it was thoroughly ludicrous
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Feb 2022
10:41pm, 28 Feb 2022
21,613 posts
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Columba
What Seren said about "A Message From The Author". Back in the late 1950s, or maybe early 60s, someone said of the "Angry Young Men": They are postmen; they deliver messages. |
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