DSL September Read: Dusty's Pick
The Lyre of Orpheus by Robertson Davies.
posted by Gwen @ 5:57 PM
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Not your momma's book club.
Previous Posts
- DSL August Read: Gwen's Pick
- DSL July Read: Karen's Pick
- DSL June Read: Mary's Pick
- DSL May Read: Gwen's Pick
- DSL April Read: Dusty's Pick
- DSL March Read: Karen's Pick
- DSL February Read: Mary's Pick
- DSL January Read: Brady's Pick
- DSL November Read: Gwen's Pick
- DSL October Read: Dusty's Pick
7 Comments:
I finally got the book and started it today. I'm only about 20 pages in but I already love the snarky tone.
i only have a few pages left to go.
do these kind of people really exist? i hope so.
and, it makes me want to go see an opera, the most absurd of all art forms, and yet, so . . . . relevant. maybe that's the wrong word. but it's something meaningful and absurdest, like life i guess.
I'm a little over 1/2 way through. I've been busy grading stats homework and stuff, so I don't get through books quite as fast as I used to. I'm still loving the snarky tone. And I like books that get me to care about stuff that I have no inherent interest in whatsoever (like opera).
I think my favorite parts are when Hoffman speaks from Limbo at the end of each section--so funny and rude and irreverent.
I am embarrassed to say that I'd never really thought about there being a particularly Canadian attitude toward literature and the like. Aside from Margaret Atwood, this is the first Canadian author I've ever read, as far as I know. There are probably tons of quite terrific Canadian novels that I am totally clueless about.
What are the chances that this particular book would be recalled? That is so annoying. I have less than 200 pages to go and it's due tomorrow and I can't renew it. I'm going to see how far I can get by tomorrow night when I have to turn it in.
I'm going to be mad if I have to turn it in with 75 pages to go or something.
I finished it last night. At first I wasn't sure about it--I was afraid it was going to be a little too literary-intellectual for my tastes. But in the end I thought it was a very satisfying tale, and I enjoyed the interweaving of the two Arthurian stories.
I did have to look up what a libretto is (I had figured it out from context but wanted to be sure) and what the lyre of Orpheus refers to. I am quite certain that a lot of the literary allusions went over my head, but I decided not to be too worried about it.
Mabel and Al didn't quite ring true to me--especially since Mabel is supposedly too radical to need to get married but yet says "tinkle-pantry" instead of bathroom--but Al was a good caricature of a certain type of academic.
oh,i loved all the negative depictions of Americans, especially Californians as dogs who wanted to get petted. Very funny.
I picked this book because of the limbo thing. Larry Brown died and his editor Sharon Ravel had to piece together his last book.
books really affect me. i've been rather snarky myself this last month, throwing allusions out like bullets.
what's the next book?
the next book is Angels by Denis Johnson
so there, i'll have book club by myself
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