LiteraTea Book Club October We're not a lynch mob, we're a book club.
I’m going out on a very uncomfortable limb with this one as the horror topic is neLiteraTea Book Club October We're not a lynch mob, we're a book club.
I’m going out on a very uncomfortable limb with this one as the horror topic is never in my wheelhouse. Ok, we are a southern book club here in Texas and what better pick for October could there be for a group of women?
I went in with a completely open mind not knowing how it would make me react. From page one, I was laughing and almost couldn’t stop. This is a really funny book with some bits of gore and yuck mixed in! The writing is light and breezy and lets you take it all in even when you don’t necessarily want to know what’s coming! You might be appalled at the fact that you want to keep turning the pages or letting the audio run!
He thinks we’re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. Let me tell you something…there’s nothing nice about Southern ladies.
This group of genteel ladies may be the perfect southern housewives and mothers but do NOT mess with a woman who must protect her family. Oh man! Yes, the southern stereotypical woman is depicted here but when she is up against a gruesome creature with a pretty face, you might just be delighted. You’ll at least be on the edge of your seat.
Then she got in her Volvo and hoped Grace was right and this was all just a product of the overactive imagination of a stupid little housewife with too much free time on her hands. If it was, she promised herself, tomorrow she would vacuum her curtains.
Here the housewives are underestimated and their husbands don’t ever listen to them. This was part of the humor and the satire. The author keeps readers laughing while squirming at the grotesque.
I am not sure what the appropriate gesture is to make toward the family of the woman who bit off your ear, but if you felt absolutely compelled, I certainly wouldn’t take food.
I mean really!!! How can you not chuckle? And cringe!
This takes place in Charleston, South Carolina in the pre-internet 1990s and offers up commentary through the fiction of gender roles (things like ‘women’s work’), class stereotypes (seen in privileged women vs. the women who work for them) as well as race and religion.
For a book I had no idea about when I started, I came away with a 4-star rating and a lot to discuss at the book club this week!
Edited: I do keep thinking about the darker side of this humorous satire and feel I’d like to provide a warning for anyone sensitive to sexual assault. This had a lot going on and often it’s easy to overlook those grim places in favor of the light and humorous ones. ...more
Ugh! I sit here after putting off writing this review because it really hurts to come to a novel that just didn’t work for me2.5 stars rounded up to 3
Ugh! I sit here after putting off writing this review because it really hurts to come to a novel that just didn’t work for me by Strout. My journey through Strout’s Lucy Barton novels has been beautiful, heart-wrenching, and enlightening. I have met some of my favorite fictional characters and shared their struggles. I have come to love Lucy’s voice and her silences which contain so much meaning. BUT…
I am not dragging this out with explanations and details about what didn’t work for me here. I am saddened that I lost Lucy’s voice amid current-day social and political jargon. It is my biggest pet peeve in novels primarily because I read to escape all of that junk of the world. I didn’t need to know Lucy’s views on any recent event nor her daughter’s or William’s.
Strout’s writing is still beautiful and I will plan to read Tell Me Everything. I do hope that Lucy’s vibes will return and that Strout stays out of today's headlines.
2.5 stars rounding up because it’s Strout. ...more
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