Was anyone else confused as to WHY Sylvia and Walter kept getting pets when they ended up getting killed, extinguished, etc? The Sierra Club must be notified about this family!
Things I Liked:
+ The wordplay - Walter's clever, lazy radiators = claziators. Hilarious. How he refers to Sylvia as his "insister." I think I could qualify as one of those.
+ The description of the animals' behavior - Lynch did his homework. Fitzy the fox terrier's "high-pitched whine-scream-laugh sound when he tried to get at something that was out of his reach but that he had to, had to, had to get at," is spot on.
+ Walter and Sylvia's relationship. Good banter, etc.
+ Carmine.
Other Things Not So Good:
+ I finished this book thinking I missed something (which made me want to read it again, slowly) but realize it is more of a quiet, internal story focussing on character development rather than plot. What plot there was rotated around the dad, even though Sylvia was the narrator. He was the one who changed, not his kids. Did anyone else see this?
+ I wanted more interaction with the townspeople, too. When Sylvia decided to join Walter at the bonfire, I was happy - all right! Now something is going to happen! Nope, not really.
+ What about the mythos of the cottage? I wanted to explore that further as well. It just seemed like a gimmick to connect the dead pets to the present narrative.
Hmm:
+ Sylvia's narrative style irked me at first, because it has touches of stream-of-consciousness with the repetition within sentences and very short statements. The structure was odd sometimes. After I got used to it, I appreciated how well it placed me in Sylvia's head to see her view of the world.
Like Meera, I was disappointed. I expected more. Was this a therapy book for Lynch?
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2 comments:
Get ready for some diarrhea of the mouth. It’s Friday afternoon, and I edit for a living. Don’t want to now, dangit.
I agree—I was definitely looking for more plot, and the plot that was there was pretty unsettling. I felt a little misled; it’s Sylvia’s story, Sylvia’s voice, yet it’s not about her, as Sarah pointed out. I don’t necessarily want to read about a dad who goes a little nuts and the kids who try to put him back together and then it all resolves (quickly, it seemed, if the dad was really dealing with all these issues that drove him to be a little obsessed) with him burying the rat gun, which he used to kill “the rat,” which I interpreted to be his own “craziness,” his tendency to get all caught up in the new house (because he was trying to get away from the old house), his ability to pretend as a means of escape (to “not dwell on that now”). And yeah, the whole Diggers thing was kind of left hanging. We needed more about that.
I really enjoyed Sylvia’s narrative (and yes, I can see some of Sarah in there), and I enjoyed Walter and his big round head, and I even liked Carmine, too. I enjoyed the chapters that described old pets and their deaths (and actually, I wasn’t that disturbed that they kept getting new pets, since Sylvia obviously really loved animals; what more disturbed me was that Walter got her a pet when he totally knew she wasn’t ready for another one).
And yeah, what about all those issues that JoBiv mentioned, all the other concerns Sylvia might be feeling? Maybe I wanted a little more interaction. I liked what she said at the beginning about her and Walter being so much alike, but then when I met Walter, I don’t think I agreed. I liked him, but they didn’t seem like bread and buttah to me.
Write more. Make me think more about this book. Because I didn’t love it. I wanted more plot, I wanted more of Sylvia’s life, I wanted more of Lynch professing his undying love for me. Wait, did I say that aloud?
Oh, that's funny. In MY book he DOES profess his undying love for ME.
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