Last month's pick in the BFBG Book Club was Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hunter.
I promised in this post that I would pose questions around April 18th. Hmmmmmm. I'm only off by a week or so. I've been kicking around some questions in my brain that I am hoping sound semi-intelligent when I type them below. If you read along with us leave a comment with your thoughts and I will repost all in a week(ish :-)).
1. I loved the description of the "bone" language that the kids shared. Given that closeness, did you find it odd that the entire family fractured so definitively when the parents divorced?
2. The abandonment of the two youngest kids, Gabrielle and her brother, was heart breaking. The theme of divorce completely upending families is a theme found often in modern literature. Does it always have to be that way?
3. I LOVED Gabrielle's description of attending the final writers group meeting and finding the experience eye rolling while all others were in raptures. I often find myself in square-peg-round-hole situations and could totally identify. What did you think?
4. I also LOVED how she fell into opening a restaurant, and how it was sweetly named Prune and all the details she had collected over time that she worked into her restaurant. I suppose the description of cleaning up the rat was to show the dark side, the tough work that is part of having your dream. But were the gruesome details necessary? And for that matter why walk away from the sweet gig at the summer camp over lobster abuse?
5. I can't get my brain around Gabrielle's relationship with her husband. They seem totally at odds yet conceived and are parents to two boys. I sense there is something more that she didn't delve into...do you?
The next pick is the Red Garden by Alice Hoffman. You can find it on Amazon or Audible. I randomly pick May 24th as the due date.
I really liked this book! What a story her life has been. I didn't find it odd that the family fractured b/c I think there was a lot going on there that wasn't said. Maybe (probably?) I was reading between the lines and projecting at the same time. I dunno. But what I did find odd was how the parents (who had seemed so great w/ their kids) sort of divorced the kids along with each other. That was so sad.
ReplyDelete2)And that answers your second point! I don't think divorce has to be that way. We had my daughter & her family here for 5 wonderful days (they left on Sunday) and she thanked me for getting divorced! It was totally civil and we never involved her in the process (she was 9 at the time). She adores her stepfather and says that if my ex & I hadn't divorced she never would have had a model of a good marriage to base her own marriage on. Good point! She's very happily married to a guy we love, too. 18-month old Ruby is all we can talk about right now! I have no heart at the moment because it went to LA with Ruby!
3) Oh, I loved that scene, too! I have always called myself a misfit. I never seemed to fit anywhere (not even in my own family). I was with Gabrielle on this one totally!
4) I thought her family (or maybe just her mother) called her Prune, and that was why she chose that name. But I love it! I found it really amazing that someone could take on this new job, new career and have such huge success. Kudos on that. The rat and human excrement could have been left out, IMO. They contributed nothing.
But what about the kids? Here's a father who doesn't live with them and seems like an emotionally distant person and a mom who's gone 18 hours a day. How are those kids now, I wonder.
5) Her husband was a jerk! My opinion. And in reading the author's bio, it would seem she divorced him. I think the only reason she held on to the marriage was because his family in Italy was so important to her. It was the big family she had as a child and still needed. Again my take on it.
I hope she does a second book b/c this one read like a soap opera and I'm dying to know what happened next! She certainly has lots more to talk about. Here's an informative short interview: http://tinyurl.com/6l6l4a8.
I'm glad you picked this book. I read the Kindle sample of The Red Garden. It's not my usual cup of tea but I'm looking at this book club you've created as a way to add some breadth to my repertoire so I'll probably go for it. I hope the Kindle price isn't outrageous (as most of them are, I think).
Hope I didn't ramble on too long!