Book Club | Book Chatter

I received my copy of Run, by Ann Patchett as part of Gayle’s online book club over at Everyday I Write The Book. Thank you Gayle! If you’d like to read some of the comments from the group, click here.

Now, on with the review. Here is the blurb from Barnes & Noble:

It’s a winter evening in Boston and the temperature has drastically dropped as a blizzard approaches the city. On this fateful night, Bernard Doyle plans to meet his two adopted sons, Tip the older, and more serious and Teddy, the affectionate dreamer, at a Harvard auditorium to hear a speech given by Jesse Jackson. Doyle, an Irish Catholic and former Boston mayor, has done his best to keep his two sons interested in politics, from the day he and his now deceased wife became their parents, through their childhoods, and now in their lives as college students. Though the two boys are African-American, the bonds of the family’s love have never been tested. But as the snow begins to fall, an accident triggers into motion a series of events that will forever change their lives.

The accident leaves Tip injured and an unknown women in critical condition. Shortly after the accident, they learn from the woman’s 11 year-old daughter, Kenya, that there is more to the story and that Kenya and her mother, have been keeping a secret for quite some time. This secret affects the Doyle’s in many ways and makes them question what’s important. As a result of the accident, they are all thrown together and forced to be around each other. This creates quite a bit of tension and awkwardness.

In my opinion, this is a story about family. It’s also a story about identity and acceptance. Tip and Teddy struggle with who they are and what they are expected to become. Doyle, their adopted father, wants the best for them but he wants very specific things. Teddy tries to do right by him in order to please him, but Tip wants to be his own person and refuses to give in to his father’s wants. Even Sullivan, Doyle’s biological son is at odds with who is is.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I enjoy character driven stories but I do not feel that these characters were fully developed and I was left wanting to know more about them. This was especially the case with the older brother, Sullivan. His is such a tragic story. When he was younger, he was involved in a car accident and his girlfriend was killed. Instead of offering support to his grieving son, Doyle convinces Sullivan to go along with the idea that the girlfriend was in fact behind the wheel, and not Sullivan. Being the Mayor at the time, Doyle felt compelled to protect his family in this way. However, that act ended up pushing his son away from him for good.

The relationship that Doyle has with all of his children is really quite sad. His expectations remain high and he never learns, even in crisis, the importance of self-worth. Yet even with all of his faults, you can sort of see why he wants each of his kids to live a certain way. I’m sure many parents want the best for their children but go about it the wrong way. That part is very realistic.

I should mention that much of this book is told within a 24 hour timeframe. This created a sense of “hurry” and gave it a claustrophobic feeling at times which further emphasized the frustration and angst between all of the characters. Although I felt the story could have gone a different way, overall I enjoyed the characters and would definitely read another book by Patchett. I just wish that some of the characters came away with more than what they started with.

Book Club Girl recently hosted a radio show with Ann Patchett. It’s a great interview and hearing what she had to say helped me understand the story a bit more. To check out the radio show, click here.

My book club’s pick for August is Mister Pip, by Lloyd Jones. Here is the blurb from Barnes and Noble:

In a novel that is at once intense, beautiful, and fablelike, Lloyd Jones weaves a transcendent story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the power of narrative to transform our lives.

On a copper-rich tropical island shattered by war, where the teachers have fled with most everyone else, only one white man chooses to stay behind: the eccentric Mr. Watts, object of much curiosity and scorn, who sweeps out the ruined schoolhouse and begins to read to the children each day from Charles Dickens’s classic Great Expectations.

The story takes place on the island of Bougainville during its 1990 struggle for independence. I did not know anything about Bougainville prior to reading this novel but Jones paints a very surreal picture as far as the island itself. The word that came to mind while reading the novel is “dreamlike” even though there is a violent element running throughout the book, there are distinct moments of feeling as if you are in a dream or a nightmare depending on how you look at it.

The story centers around Mr. Watts and Matilda. Mr. Watts is the only white man on the island. He lives with a black woman named Grace. The two are often seen following one another but no one really knows much about him. After all the teachers leave the island, Mr. Watts decides to re-open the schoolhouse. The inhabitants of the island have mixed feelings about this. They are curious about this man, but they also question his ability to teach.

At their first gathering, Mr. Watts takes out a copy of Great Expectations and begins to read passages to them. His intent is to introduce them to Mr. Dickens and that is just what he does. As the days pass and they get deeper into the book, Matilda, one of his pupils begins to talk about the book with her Mum back at their hut. Her Mum begins to question what is being taught to these kids and questions why specific parts of the book have not been removed.

As if in preparation for this, Mr. Watts begins to invite the parents to come talk to the class and gives them the opportunity to “teach” the kids about a topic that they are familiar with. One mother does cooking, one discusses the life cycle of the Mayfly. All are welcomed and all are made to feel as if they contributed. Even though Matilda’s Mum participates in these guest lectures, she continues to question the motives of this white man.

I can’t say much more without giving some of the story away, but the story begins to examine what is fiction and what is not and how interwoven their lives are with the lives contained between the pages of Great Expectations. Lloyd does a fantastic job of leading you along and lulling you into a sense of calm, only to shake you up and create visuals that you just cannot get out of your mind.

Mister Pip is easy to read, yet has some very deep themes. I recommend some additional reading on the island of Bougainville. You can read a little about the island here.

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