Talk Healthy

When I first read the reviews a while ago I thought it was not for me (WAY too disturbing), but someone on my parenting board was raving about it yesterday, saying she was up until 2 am to finish it. Very few things in life would make me stay up until 2 am, so I was curious.

I read it a few years ago and I loved it. It's one of those books that I still think about sometimes.

I thought you'd read it, Blush, but I wasn't sure. Cool! I think I'll try to get a copy.

Thanks!

Got it! Now if I can just finish World without End... Maybe in 2 months or so.

Just started it...

Oh yeah? I'm on page 190 or so. I like it so far. What about you?

I'm only a few pages in, but I left it at work.

Meh - can't get into it. Is it worth the effort?

I'm loving it. Well, as much as you can "love" a book about a psycho whose mother didn't want/love him. I'm finding it very gripping. I'm 80 pages from the end. I agree that her style is not easy. Her long sentences and sometimes seemingly pointless side stories get on my nerves sometimes. And her vocabulary is a little... pretentious, no? I mean, of course English is not my native language, and maybe I should consider she's doing me a favor in improving my vocab, but I'm lazy.

Finished it. Holy powerful book. Check this out:

"This is all I know. That on the 11th of April, 1983, unto me a son was born, and I felt nothing. Once again, the truth is always larger than what we make of it. As that infant squirmed on my breast, from which he shrank in such distaste, I spurned him in return - he may have been a fifteenth my size, but it seemed fair at the time. Since that moment we have fought one another with an unrelenting ferocity that I can almost admire."

Ruth, did you stop it?

Blush, do you wanna discuss it?

I'd love to discuss it but I don't know if I remember enough of it to bring much value to the discussion. The scenes that stay with me are the ones in the gym, and the realization at the end about the entirety of the book.

OK, SPOILERS FROM NOW ON:









I totally Did NOT see that Franklin was dead. I totally thought he'd left her after Thursday because she'd been such a bad mother. I suspected Celia might be dead though, because Eva never saw her. Only talked about her in the past. And she said "if only I'd been able to keep Celia...". I thought she could have lost custody, but it wasn't very likely. But the husband? Never saw it coming.

What I didn't buy:

How one day she woke up and simply HAD to have another baby. With the disastrous parenting experience she'd had? Where did that certainty that she needed another child come from?

How Kevin behaved as a baby and as a toddler. Come on. That child was from a horror movie. No real child (even a psycho) would do the things he did, not be interested in anything like he wasn't. Since she mentions that he was a "bright kid". Didn't buy that for one moment.

What sadly WAS believable was her lack of love for her own son. Society shows us repeatedly that such mothers DO exist. Here in Brazil a big story in the news these days is that of a couple who abandoned triplets at the hospital AND they'd had IVF. WTF???

I was also surprised that Franklin was dead; I remember having to put the book down and let that sink in while I went over it in my head.

I also didn't buy that he was such an evil baby. What baby is evil?

I brushed off the fact about her wanting another baby because my own maternal instincts seem to be faulty; I don't question them in others, even in books!

And wow, I need to look up that news story!

Not just evil, he was just not interested in anything. What baby is not interested in anything? They're interested in EVERYthing! I just didn't buy that a NORMAL baby/toddler (of normal intelligence, that is) would be that apathetic (is that a word?).

I wouldn't question her desire to have another baby IF she'd had a healthy relationship with her existing child. But the way things were, I was like "oh come on, you gotta be kidding". But overall I really, really liked the book.