Half way through!
Interesting clip about the collodion
Process
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hnxT4WQsLLM
Missed this one, so I’m posting hoping to lurk and not miss out on the August selection. Currently reading Madeleine Albright’s new book, so maybe I’ll finish in time to read this one.
I just got the audio version from the library, and I’m #3 in line for the ebook. I should be able to join the group this time.
I am 36th on the waitlist for the ebook. 31 copies available. I’m hoping for some fast readers. It estimates 3 weeks.
One of the best things about the CC Book Club online discussion is that it generally last 10 days and you can slide in when you finish the book whenever that may be. I haven’t always finished by the start date but managed to join in on day five or six.
Picked up the book at the library a couple of days ago - it’s not due until June 4 so I’ll read it a bit closer to the end of the month.
I also just got an email from Amazon showing me some free Kindle Prime books - and The Weight of Ink is one of them! So I now have that book also.
I finished the book last night–stayed up until midnight to finish it. I will enjoy the discussion, but we will be in Europe for most of June. I hope that I will be able to join the discussion.
It’s June 1st! Welcome to our discussion of Once Upon a River.
Good book! I started reading last week and was afraid I wouldn’t finish in time, but it was a page-turner and moved very quickly. The characters were vividly drawn and unique. I had no trouble remembering who was who, and I loved the fact that so many of the characters were admirable: generous, compassionate and kind people (with a couple of notable exceptions, obviously). I really admired Rita and Armstrong. I also enjoyed the mystery aspect — I pieced a lot together as I read, but didn’t guess everything. And I appreciated the overarching theme of it being, at its root, a story about telling stories.
Things to think about:
I entertained a number of different scenarios as I read, e.g., Amelia was kidnapped and raised by Robin’s wife as Alice [wrong]; Ann was actually Lily’s daughter, fathered by stepbrother Victor, and Lily called her “my sister” because of a Chinatown kind of inability to name the relationship [wrong]; the girl was Amelia, but unblemished and unable to talk because of being kept hidden away for two years ala Room [wrong], etc., etc.
As it turned out, the actual ending made me a little…restless. I am not a magical realism person—I’m short on magical and long on realism. So I was a bit dissatisfied with the girl as a mythological character—the daughter of Charon, if you will. I wanted practical, hard-and-fast answers. (The river gypsy story was dangled as an option, but was too vague and unlikely.)
It didn’t come as a surprise to me, because that was the direction my mind took from the minute Daunt carried the drowned girl into the inn. In a way, I think Diane Setterfield was throwing a bone to those of us with a less fanciful turn of mind. I thought of the mammalian diving reflex right away, probably because I remember this local (Chicago) incident so well: https://apnews.com/b9af283c827db755d4daaa6114e8c44f and https://steemit.com/life/@whiteblood/a-true-living-history-from-chicago
Also, I thought there were some mixed messages with Quietly’s story. According to the tale, wasn’t he immortal, doomed to row forever? But at the end of the novel, it’s suggested that he grew old and died and his daughter grew up and took over the family business. I guess that’s sort of the point — that storytelling takes on a life of its own, with many variations on a theme — but it was hard for me to wrap my head around all the conflicting possibilities.
And finally, I felt bad for the Vaughans. The new baby is nice, but doesn’t diminish the fact that Vaughan and Helena had two young girls disappear while in their care. As far as they are concerned, the little girl is very real, and quite precious to them. Helena takes a nap and the girl wanders off and disappears. Can you imagine living through that trauma a second time? I would never sleep again. Excuse the dark humor, but I have to say that when the girl disappeared from the Vaughan’s home, that famous line from The Importance of Being Earnest ran through my head: “To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”
These aren’t complaints — just observations. The book was great fun to read and I think we’ll have a lot to discuss.
I enjoyed the book and liked that I couldn’t really figure out what was going to happen. It made me want to keep reading. The story was a bit of a winding river in that I found it a little long in places. I was disappointed at the end. I thought the stories of Armstrong and Jonathan seeing the girl on Quietly’s punt pretty much verified Quietly’s existance. Armstrong and Jonathan were not characters who made up stories. I suppose the trauma happening around them could have played games with their minds and memories, but that possibility wasn’t done convincingly. The story was a little bit like playing telephone. By the time the story gets to the last person, it has changed and lost some of its truth.
Yes,yes,yes to Mary13 post, loved this book, so much atmosphere, setting, mysticism and realism ( like you, Mary13 ) I’m more comfortable with the realistic, scientific explanations. Hence, I’m drawn to Rita. Agree, with all your explanations of the mystery girl, especially Victor Nash’s /Lilly’s incestuous ( ewwwww) child.
Had to research mythical Chabon, you referred to.
https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/charon.html
Didn’t it seem overboard to have three missing child story lines, in this novel? Complicated.
Just found this article addressing the author’s “obsession” with losing a loved one- and, mary13 Setterfield refers to an American who came back to life after drowning -, also another child in 2008 fell into Lake Michigan for 15 minutes and survived. FYI
https://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/17940484.html
https://bookpage.com/interviews/23411-diane-setterfield-fiction#.XPKi4RopChA
There were a lot of interesting characters in the story. I really liked the little boy who found Alice and brought her to the Armstrongs. He was very resourceful.
It was amazing to me that so many people in the story had lost young girls around the age of two.
Coincidentally: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_(2019_film) - in theaters now.
I really liked the book and like Mary entertained all sorts of ideas about the girl’s identity. I’d vaguely heard of the business about being able to survive freezing if you don’t die of hypothermia instead, so the realist in me was fine with all that. Yes the Vaughan’s lose a girl twice, but the second time they both know it isn’t really their child.
I guess I am to much of a realist - I’m happy to imagine up scientifc explanations for Quietly and the girl. Visual hallucinations are actually pretty common - and it doesn’t always take drugs or dementia to bring them on - though they help. (Oliver Sacks wrote a whole book on the phenomena.)
I liked the story very much, but there were times I felt it was a little too self-consciously literary.
I read the book a couple of weeks ago so don’t have details fresh in my mind. I did enjoy the descriptive and mystical nature of the book. The characters were well drawn.
I found a few notes I made halfway through the book:
- too many little girls
- too many questions
- obvious author knows the answers
By the last, I mean that I didn’t feel like we were taking a journey along with the author, but rather that she was deliberately creating confusion for the reader when she knew where it all was leading.
I also did not like the ending. Here we were in a streaming flowing almost dreamy consciousness and suddenly it became nasty and brutal and sad. Mythology and reality clashing.
I just started reading this book - better late than never!
It’s a pretty quick read—hope you enjoy it.
It was interesting how most of the characters were all good or all bad and not much coloration between the two.
When the name Lily White was revealed, I remembered this book I’d once read: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/291338.Lily_White