Seriously, though, the blog was a recent idea. It's a miracle that we even have notes from those first meetings!
True to form, my notes have one line: Overall, we did not like this book.
It's true. We gave it a one star rating.
The book is about the relationship that develops between the general foreman of a construction site and a little old lady living near the construction site, who refused to sell her home to the construction company. The foreman becomes more and more involved, eventually taking on the role of her caretaker.
We all (Deuce, Diesel, Indy, and Archimedes) felt that, while the plot line had potential, the book failed to deliver. The first issue was the writing. It was very repetitive. Also, the author repeated himself. (See what I did there?) We were also irked about how the foreman seemed to sacrifice his time with his own family to be with a perfect stranger. While this may be noble in theory, the way the story played out, it seemed as though the foreman may have had ulterior motives.
On the positive side, it did make for some good book club discussion. It brought up the topics of the caregiver/caregivee (?) roles and the challenges and rewards of each. Indy brought up some of the better passages of the book:
"I hadn't really a moment to consider that here's this woman, well into her eighties living a pretty solitary existence, and still going to the trouble of getting her hair done on a regular basis. It says something about her and her generation, I guess. For some reason I remembered those pictures you see of men at baseball games, years ago, in shirts and ties and fedoras. There was something a little more proper and formal about the way they went around in the world; it seemed like a measure of respect for each other and for themselves, I guess that's kinda been lost as time goes by." - pages 48-49
"As I walked out I happened to notice the picture of Edith holding the clarinet she said Benny Goodman had given her sitting on the table with that lamp from my childhood. It felt so odd. These little physical objects, a table, a lamp, a clarinet; so meaningless really. Just dumb stuff. But in another way, they were what tied us all together. Edith and her cousin - if he really was her cousin - connected by that clarinet. Edith and her mother by those little Red Rose tea figurines. ... No wonder people become hoarders. It's all about what you throw away and what you keep forever." - page 237-Under One Roof by Barry Martin with Phillip Lerman
Sadly, this book is one of the things that I am not going to keep forever. We did, however, have shortbread cookies at our meeting, which Edith, the little old lady in the story, liked.
If any of you have any additional comments on our discussion or remember any other points raised, please feel free to add them or comment.
I believe your overview was more interesting than the book! Nice review of the book and the meeting.
ReplyDelete