Spoil me, spoil me
LET THEM READ LACE
Marie Tonibette
LET THEM READ LACE
Marie Tonibette
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THE LACE READER Sept 08 ***SPOILERS***
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 BCCJillster |
THE LACE READER Sept 08 ***SPOILERS*** |
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09/16/08 07:40 AM BCC ZEN BOOKIE COOKIE
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Currently reading: The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa, Monsters of Florence, Doug Preston
Just finished Savage Garden, WHEN WE WERE ROMANS by Matthew Kneale , WHITE NIGHTS, a mystery by Anne Cleeves, OUT OF THE BLACKOUT by Robert Barnard., Monsters of Templeton |
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dlee10 |
#1 | |||
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09/16/08 01:53 PM BCC BookieMonster |
The ending blew me away! I never suspected not even for a second. When Rafferty was reading Towner's journal he said that it was a story with a bit of
truth thrown in. It was about playing tag and I could not figure out what the "lie" was. Of course at the very end I realized, and I guess Towner did
too, that there was no Lindley. How sad. I guess with Cal as her father she needed an escape hatch. I think Rafferty knew all along that there was no Lindley.
And chose to love her anyway. What do you think? I hope they managed to be together (after the book ended) He did show up with the dog but then again Jack
tried too when she was hospitalized the first time. Do you think she ever really loved Jack? She admitted to loving Rafferty. Do you think Eva meant for Towner
and Rafferty to be together? Did you know Jack raped her before he admitted it? Do you think she knew? So Beezer was her cousin not her brother. What about
Angela? Do you think she was really neccessary to the story? So many twists and turns I'm dizzy! There are no wrong readings, just wrong interpretations. I
love that. I found some of the narrator changes to be a bit confusing but that is really my only quibble.
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wernoclue |
#2 | |||
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09/16/08 02:19 PM BCC ZEN Bookie MASTER |
Deb, I didn't suspect at all, but I felt like I should have since on the very first page she calls herself a liar. I don't have the book at hand at the
moment and I read it a little while ago so many of the details are no longer fresh. Like... who is Angela? Is she the girls she's helping at the end,
swimming through the tunnel?
Karen
I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. - Anna Quindlen |
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dlee10 |
#3 | |||
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09/16/08 02:45 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Yes, Angela is the one in the tunnel. When Towner first came into Eva's house a pregnant girl seemed about to come in but then she disappeared. Rafferty
was trying to pin her murder on Cal since nothing else would stick and he was the father of her baby. Very bad as he preached celibacy. "Calvanists";
very funny.
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MizPam |
#4 | |||
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09/16/08 02:49 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Angela is the girl being dragged by her hair through the tunnel.
Pam |
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someonegetchristine |
#5 | |||
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09/16/08 03:22 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Was Eva's drowning an accident or murder? If so, who did it ??
Sorry - had to get book back unfinished but am dying to know outcome....tks Midwives help people out.
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MizPam |
#6 | |||
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09/16/08 03:45 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Ugh. I hate to tell you this......... Suicide. She killed herself to save Towner/Lindley. In her own mind, it made sense to her that by ending her own life she
would be able to give Lindley back hers. This was the only way she could think of to get Towner/Lindley to come back to Salem from CA so she might discover the
true story. It worked. Lindley finds a note stuck in a secret pocket of the lace pillow that Towner had overlooked and in it was a note from Eva explaining why
she did what she did. I'll have to go home and find the passage so I can let you know.
Do you want me to send you the book? I have it and would gladly send it on. Pam |
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dlee10 |
#7 | |||
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09/16/08 04:35 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Just like when Eva cut off Towner's pigtail. "Now you are free".
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someonegetchristine |
#8 | |||
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09/17/08 03:19 AM BCC BookieMonster |
Thanks Pam - but I can wait until our library gets its own copy - I'm just being a bit impatient - suicide, not what I was expecting at all! What an
interesting person eva msut have been though.
Midwives help people out.
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Cierdwyn |
#9 | |||
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09/17/08 10:43 AM |
btw, what was the point behind the whole Jack-raping-Towner thread? it seemed rather gratuitous in light of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, and
didn't add anything to the Towner-Rafferty thread - it just seemed like the author was looking for another hideous thing to have happen to her, so oh,
there.. an old boyfriend rapes her while she's unconscious (as I said in the other thread, WHAT THE HECK?)
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MizPam |
#10 | |||
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09/17/08 02:32 PM BCC BookieMonster |
I'm with you on that one Jen. That was a dumb addition. You're right. There were a couple of those needless escapades but I liked it anyway. The author
was trying to get certain emotional and or psychological points into the story and seemed to have tossed them out there willy-nilly.
Pam |
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dlee10 |
#11 | |||
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09/17/08 04:38 PM BCC BookieMonster |
I think it was Jack letting go. I don't think he realized at first that he was raping her. He still loved her, wanted her back. Wanted the intimacy he
couldn't find anywhere. Her letting go of Jack was important in order for her to realize she loved Rafferty.
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Cierdwyn |
#12 | |||
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09/17/08 04:56 PM |
But she couldn't let go of him without him raping her? And wasn't she unware it had even happened? Thus her (and other characters, repeating it on her
say so) saying "I didn't sleep with Jack, couldn't have even if I wanted to on account of the surgery"
I don't see how Jack shoving it in an unconscious Towner can seem in any way loving thing to do (possessive, yes... loving, NO because love is not about "I need this from you so I'm going to take it") and it certainly didn't seem to have anything to do with her "letting go" process.... To me, it's a gratuitous "Let's REALLY underscore that Towner's abused" cheap trick.... literary diarrhea, if you will |
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dlee10 |
#13 | |||
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09/17/08 05:34 PM BCC BookieMonster |
I saw it more as a really awful attempt on Jack's part to get Towner back in his life. He was obsessed with her since he was a teen. Jack didn't know
about the surgery. He may have taken Towner's lack of interest as aquiesence. Jack wasn't any healthier emotionally than Towner and I think a lot of
men think sex makes everything alright. It wasn't until later Jack realized what he had done and he was horrified. It gave him the ability to let her go
and the ability to make a commitment to the woman in Canada. Just like I can't decide how important Angela was to the story, I think the rape could have
easily been left out. It certainly has a knee-jerk negative reaction for the reader. Still, I'm not sure that this was a cheap trick on the author's
part. I am chalking up to first novel oopsies. On a whole I liked the book. I didn't think the woo-woo was the least bit overdone. I liked the portrayal of
the modern day witches. I love how I never saw the ending coming.
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MizPam |
#14 | |||
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09/18/08 09:22 AM BCC BookieMonster |
I agree with both of you. Delving into Jack's emotional state was when I realized we were reading a first time author that hadn't learned to tighten up
the details yet. I let it go as well and moved on.
I think Angela was important since Towner was able to relate to her on several different levels. Eva knew it too. Angela also let us relate to Cal in a way that made him more human rather than a deranged monster. It took me the longest time to remember who Sophya was. Ie; Jill in No Spoilers. Good grief. Sometimes I wonder if my mom's Alzheimer's is infectious. Pam
Last Edited By: MizPam 09/18/08 09:32 AM.
Edited 1 time.
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xmaystarx |
#15 | |||
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09/18/08 08:15 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Ok I've been finished and am just absorbing your comments. But now I have to ask... who was Sophya? I can't remember and though I have the book here I
don't feel like flipping through to look!
I totally didn't realize Jack was raping Towner until he said it. I'm not sure there would be a way to know that before hand. It wasn't really described like that at all. I did keep in the back of my mind the fact that she admitted to being a liar while I read but still did not expect that there was no Lindly! I really enjoyed the descriptions of the kids playing flashlight tag, I think because we used to do the same thing with the large number of kids in my neighborhood. I wanted to scream at Angela and shake her to get her to see what type of guy Cal was and how she was being sucked in. But I agree that it did make him more of a person and less of a monster, knowing that someone out there cared for him. What do you think of all the dogs on the island? Pretty weird that they were wild but listened to those who lived there. Think this behavior could happen in reality?
Courtney
Currently reading: The Lace Reader (and liking the references to local areas) |
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dlee10 |
#16 | |||
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09/19/08 06:25 AM BCC BookieMonster |
Yuku ate my lovely post! Let's see how much I remember. Towner was Sophya's name for herself. I would have liked an explaination of where that name
came from. I think the dogs were plausible but I don't think they listened to the people on the island. They were just used to them. Towner knew that the
only way to call the dogs was to do it through Bzy, her pet one. I didn't realized that Jack was having sex (let alone raping) Towner until he said it. I
think the only lie that Towner told was the one she told herself: Lindley. Being that Lindley was a defence mechanism I'm not even sure I would classify it
as a lie. After all it wasn't until May told Towner that she couldn't have loved her more if she had been her own child that Towner realized the truth.
I do think Towner was able to see the future. She just couldn't interpret it.
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MizPam |
#17 | |||
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09/19/08 09:50 AM BCC BookieMonster |
Yup.
I absolutely cannot imagine a Golden living in a cave and being wild. I've raised them and they do love comfort, warmth and being fed on a regular schedule. But since all dogs are offspring of wolves, I suppose it's plausible. This statement had me pondering for the longest time. I'm glad Towner figured it out 'cause I sure didn't. After all it wasn't until May told Towner that she couldn't have loved her more if she had been her own childI went to school in Boston and did all kinds camping and visiting the Cape while there. I can just envision the area they're in. It's so beautiful in the summer and so very desolate in the winter. Growing up in a small rural neighborhood that centered around twin ponds, we played like that in the summer too. Too much fun! That description brought back the warm fuzzies to me tool My favorites were the witches. Loved 'em! I know zilch about sailing (sorry Jodi) so that part was fascinating to me. I can row a mean rowboat though. Pam |
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xmaystarx |
#18 | |||
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09/19/08 12:30 PM BCC BookieMonster |
Oh yea, Sophya = Towner, duh!! How could I have forgotten that. I realize now that she created Lindly or a sister for herself as a defense mechanism to get her
through the abuse but I don't know why I didn't realize that when reading initially!
Courtney
Currently reading: The Lace Reader (and liking the references to local areas) |
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BCCJillster |
#19 | |||
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09/19/08 04:59 PM BCC ZEN BOOKIE COOKIE
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Before I read all of your comments--I'll get some of my 'uninfluenced' thoughts out. I loved the ending! I had NO suspicion we were heading toward
anything like that! But it made such good sense. I know I know she said up front she was a liar, but I had no idea. I still don't understand (and maybe
it's discussed above) when she actually went to live with May. Was it as a child or when she was 13 or ? How did Cal get access to her? And who was
Beezer's father? And what did Eva mean at the end about taking her place? And OH so it means that Jack was in love with her all the time, not Lyndley
first. Ooo how cool.
Anyway--I really enjoyed the book as it grew on me. I found myself missing the setting and Towner when I couldn't grab reading time. There were some slow patches, but not slow enough to push me away. So the premonition she had about the shot going through her and Rafferty turned out to be Cal instead--but how did Rafferty hear the shot too? Did Towner have real survivor guilt or did she split into two personalities when the abuse began so she could pretend it was Lyndley it happened to? Lots more but I can't stand not reading your comments any longer LOL
Currently reading: The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa, Monsters of Florence, Doug Preston
Just finished Savage Garden, WHEN WE WERE ROMANS by Matthew Kneale , WHITE NIGHTS, a mystery by Anne Cleeves, OUT OF THE BLACKOUT by Robert Barnard., Monsters of Templeton |
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BCCJillster |
#20 | |||
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09/19/08 05:18 PM BCC ZEN BOOKIE COOKIE
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What an interesting conversation. I was struck by the Jack/rape incident as discussed and wonder if was more about frustration and control than anything.
Isn't rape supposed to be about power not sex? My guess is that she 'disassociated' and went away in the same way she must have with Cal and
that's why Jack didn't get a reaction out of her--that plus the booze.e
What I don't get is why did she stop loving Jack the first time now that we know it was Towner all along? Before I knew that they were one person, I wanted to yell at Towner and tell her it was YOU Jack tried to save, not Lindley so she'd know he really did want her and not her sister anymore. LOL that's how believable it all was. It also makes sense now that Towner was standing outside the old car when Cal discovered "lyndley" in there with Jack. She bolted mentally. Come to think of it, isn't that when she split with Jack? I thought the author did heroic duty by NOT having Rafferty rescue Towner and Angela. That would have been so predictable and cliche. Did anyone pick up on the timing of Towner being in California vis a vis Emma and Cal--I'm confused about what the real sequence likely was.
Currently reading: The Crow Eaters by Bapsi Sidhwa, Monsters of Florence, Doug Preston
Just finished Savage Garden, WHEN WE WERE ROMANS by Matthew Kneale , WHITE NIGHTS, a mystery by Anne Cleeves, OUT OF THE BLACKOUT by Robert Barnard., Monsters of Templeton |
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