Canada by Richard Ford

Remember last blog where I wrote about our crazy process for choosing new books? Lots of suggestions, then decisions, then amendment to the decisions? Well, this has never happened before, but one of our members read the wrong book! Terry read Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore-one of the books Fred had suggested. When in fact, the group had decidedly chosen Canada by Richard Ford!

For each of us, the reading of Canada was a different experience. Everyone agreed that the language in the novel was beautifully crafted. Everyone also agreed that Ford articulated some amazing insights shared by his 6o something narrator explaining the details of his trauma filled 15-year-old life. From there we had mixed reactions. Chrysanne thought the book was just too wordy and too long. For Mindy and myself, we were puzzled about the lack of emotion in the narrator's retelling of his story of bank robbery, murder, and abandonment. Mindy cited a great quote: I was only 15 then and used to believing what people told me-sometimes more than what I believed in my heart...I didn't connect these feelings to my feelings now, or recognize they meant the same thing.  We each thought that the description of what it felt like to be part of and victim to an unhappy relationship was well developed.  Ford writes  of his parents' relationship: The longer they stayed on, and the better they knew each other, the better she at least could see their mistake, and the more misguided their lives became-like a long proof in mathematics in which the first calculation is wrong, following which all other calculations move your further away from how things were when they made sense.  Finally, for Ed who had lived in the area of the world where the novel was set, he loved the novel wrapped in this setting.  And Tim, I think Tim liked it as well-albeit he agreed that the novel was lengthy.  Terry was a great sport and filled us in on Sacre Bleu!

Next month we are reading something a bit light: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zaffon.  We will be meeting at Fred's house on June 26th.