You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My feelings toward this book were very complicated while reading.
One one hand, it felt very gratuitous in ways that initially come across as grotesque for the sake of being grotesque. The first half felt to me like Cormac McCarthy at his absolute worst - the same airiness and shock value events, hard life, and heavy atmosphere, but without any of the message. There was almost no pleasure for me in getting through it. I was dead set on rating this a one or a two just out of spite for taking my time.
The clouds parted in the latter half though. I came away with the message I was so desperately searching for; Thalia is a broken, heavy, lonely town and the people in it ever more so. They are desperate for connection and love and community and nowhere they go can fulfill this for them. The idea of genuine connection is so alien to them that it seems unnatural and to be avoided whenever it is truly found. Sex isn’t anything but a way to mime the act of love, of some type of connection. Lois says something to the affect of “Few people know the real meaning of sex” almost acting as if sex itself is some gesture long forgotten and replicated into the present. It is a facsimile of what it meant to the people of long ago and now only few people know what it truly means. I’d argue that by the end Sonny gets there with Ruth.
It’s also a book about growing up. There are passages dedicated to the older jaded characters looking at Sonny or Duane or Jacey and reminiscing about youth. At the time, I was mildly dissatisfied with the idea that the lives of these kids were anything enviable at all. But as the book goes on, you learn to what extent there is a true and absolute dearth of interconnectivity in these peoples lives. They are fractured, and the grotesque way of life of the county’s teens is comparably more emotionally rich in at least some capacity. If nothing else, they have hope. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly for me than watching Sonny get older and become one of these jaded adults; his tragedy keeps growing and it culminates in the closing of the picture show, absence of Duane, and the death of Billy. These things force him to reconcile with his life and lack of connection, turning back to the one person he seems capable of making him “real” - that is, Ruth. Billy to me is the emblem of childhood. He gets lost in his own world, assumes the stability (or semblance of stability) will continue in perpetuity and the day in which childhood finally locks its doors is so overwhelming that he can do nothing but wait for it to open again for the rest of his life. He has no choice but to die, to not exist in this world which no longer has space for him.
If you had told me halfway through this book that I’d walk away thinking what I think about it now I probably would’ve thrown the book at you. I’m glad I got there though and I think this one will stick with me for a while afterwards. Absolutely worth a read, just keep in mind that everything has a purpose
One one hand, it felt very gratuitous in ways that initially come across as grotesque for the sake of being grotesque. The first half felt to me like Cormac McCarthy at his absolute worst - the same airiness and shock value events, hard life, and heavy atmosphere, but without any of the message. There was almost no pleasure for me in getting through it. I was dead set on rating this a one or a two just out of spite for taking my time.
The clouds parted in the latter half though. I came away with the message I was so desperately searching for; Thalia is a broken, heavy, lonely town and the people in it ever more so. They are desperate for connection and love and community and nowhere they go can fulfill this for them. The idea of genuine connection is so alien to them that it seems unnatural and to be avoided whenever it is truly found. Sex isn’t anything but a way to mime the act of love, of some type of connection. Lois says something to the affect of “Few people know the real meaning of sex” almost acting as if sex itself is some gesture long forgotten and replicated into the present. It is a facsimile of what it meant to the people of long ago and now only few people know what it truly means. I’d argue that by the end Sonny gets there with Ruth.
It’s also a book about growing up. There are passages dedicated to the older jaded characters looking at Sonny or Duane or Jacey and reminiscing about youth. At the time, I was mildly dissatisfied with the idea that the lives of these kids were anything enviable at all. But as the book goes on, you learn to what extent there is a true and absolute dearth of interconnectivity in these peoples lives. They are fractured, and the grotesque way of life of the county’s teens is comparably more emotionally rich in at least some capacity. If nothing else, they have hope. Nothing demonstrates this more clearly for me than watching Sonny get older and become one of these jaded adults; his tragedy keeps growing and it culminates in the closing of the picture show, absence of Duane, and the death of Billy. These things force him to reconcile with his life and lack of connection, turning back to the one person he seems capable of making him “real” - that is, Ruth. Billy to me is the emblem of childhood. He gets lost in his own world, assumes the stability (or semblance of stability) will continue in perpetuity and the day in which childhood finally locks its doors is so overwhelming that he can do nothing but wait for it to open again for the rest of his life. He has no choice but to die, to not exist in this world which no longer has space for him.
If you had told me halfway through this book that I’d walk away thinking what I think about it now I probably would’ve thrown the book at you. I’m glad I got there though and I think this one will stick with me for a while afterwards. Absolutely worth a read, just keep in mind that everything has a purpose
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Didn't find anything particularly compelling or valuable in it
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes