I think this is a case where for me anyway, I can clearly see that “nurture” (or lack of nurturing) is what shaped that family.
It’s a part of the story that isn’t part of the book, but you know, we jump from Phoebe as a baby to Phoebe as a teen. I wonder what her mental thoughts and observations of her family - and her role herself - was in between those ages as she was a child growing up.
Agree that nurture largely created the family dynamic. I can certainly relate to part of this, having been raised by a mother who aimed to “get it right” without having experienced that herself.
I also wonder how these kids would have been described here on CC --, wealthy, the product of an elite NYC day school, and line-jumping major donor legacies – and less “worthy” of their college admissions? I appreciated that the fretting mom is picking up CTCL!
Oh, I can DEFINITELY see Harrison as a CC t_roll causing trouble!!! 
It’s been a long time since I’ve read Brideshead Revisited. I think of it as steeped in nostalgia, restless young men who missed the great war. I remember the Catholicism was there, but not the quote or even that as a theme. I do think the Latecomer kids are also searching for purpose. They don’t really need money, but they do need family.
I’m curious did many of you feel as I did, that there would be some new information or details about “ the automobile accident” ? I kept thinking some horrible detail would emerge making Salo neglient.
I didn’t feel that, but it seems to me it would scarcely have mattered because Salo took it as hard as if he had been negligent. No amount of “It’s not your fault” reassurances seemed to make any difference to him (until Stella).
Definitely not Salo’s fault (page 7):
Later, the instability of those 1970s Jeeps would become something of a cliche, but at that time the notion of a rugged, gritty 4x4 driving machine, …
In the aftermath, he had no recollection of the rock in the road, or the sickening arc through the air, …
and
Rollovers Make National News Headlines
The issue of rollover first made national news in 1980 when CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a report on the Jeep CJ, the model for many early SUVs. The report showed footage of an Insurance Institute of Highway Safety test in which the vehicle rolled over while executing a “J” turn (a sweeping right turn followed by a straight-on path) and during sudden evasive maneuvers, such as a quick turn to avoid an object in its path. Despite the rollover risk, Americans flocked to the Jeep. Other automakers, their sales slumping, took notice.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/rollover/unsafe/cron.html
I have been surprised that no one has mentioned Walden School. What a dreadful place. I think of Edward Munich’s “ The Scream” when I think of how Harrison must have felt about the place. How much did the school affect his personality?
Maybe if Walden had been more middle-of-the-road in its politics, Harrison wouldn’t have become such a reactionary. But it was so extreme that he needed to rebel in dramatic fashion. Reading a NYT review:
Hilarious as she describes the fictional Walden School of Brooklyn Heights, “where a frankly socialist ethos stood in bald contrast to soaring tuition.”
As an aside, I like the way the review describes Phoebe:
What a blessing for these three and for the reader that Phoebe, frozen at the same time but born almost 19 years later, grows up with the perspective to decode and partially disarm her tragicomic family…her utility is such that in the final chapters of this complex book, she becomes a Swiss Army knife of a character — interventionist (“I want to talk about some things”), girl detective (“So would you please tell me about the legal troubles?”), pardoner (“You didn’t know it was the last thing you’d ever say to him”) and matchmaker (“Maybe it’s something the two of you should talk about”). https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/25/books/review/the-latecomer-jean-hanff-korelitz.html
JHK seemed to used Waldon school to poke the progressive, liberal left, and Eli her poke at the far right. She balanced her political agendas.
I did! In my appreciation of my own high school! There are quite a few schools without grades. My brother attended one for middle school, but I think they now have grades in the high school. That said Harrison was a terrible fit. I think it contributed to his insecurity. Page 138 where he’s talking about being obsessed about going to Harvard, there’s this line: “To be honest, he couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t fear being found out.” And here’s my little nit - same page he’s terrified of the SATs, which is “his first standardized test”, gets a perfect score. If he went to CTY (Nerd camp to be with kids who knew what Supply Side Economics was) he almost certainly took the SAT to qualify.
I started the book a while ago in anticipation of this discussion and…didn’t like it and returned it to the library after reading a only a few chapters. But then after peeking at some of the comments above, I decided to give it another chance and can say that I really enjoyed it. So thank you, everyone!
@MMRose — knowing we were going to discuss the book motivated me to stay with it, even though I struggled through the 1st 2/3ds. I’m a sucker for a happy ending so I’m glad I read the last 1/3, which was the easiest to read.
@MMRose, I’m glad you gave it a second go! (And welcome!)
I’ve been meaning to go back to these questions posted earlier because I think they’re important. And my answers would be yes and yes. We overanalyze in the sense that we make connections, draw conclusions and find meaning in ways that the author may have never intended. But there’s a school of thought that we diminish literature if we focus only on the author’s intention.
It’s actually an ongoing literary debate, where one side holds that the intent of the author is the primary determinant of meaning, and the other side holds that the author is unaware of certain aspects of their own work until revealed by readers.
I just looked it up, and in literary criticism, the debate is called Authorial Intent vs. Intentional Fallacy.
Authorial Intent = the view that the author’s intentions should constrain the way the text is interpreted.
Intentional Fallacy = the mistake of basing the assessment of a work on the author’s intention rather than the reader’s response.
I’ve stumbled into some really heated debates online about this. (Don’t go there, it’s Dark Web stuff 
.) Here’s a quote I liked:
The author is working on a conscious level and on a deep unconscious level. It’s safe to say that an author can have a certain degree of understanding of what they think they are writing in a particular work, and that over time a deeper set of connections reveals itself. An author might be writing with a deep set of biases of which they are unaware, and from a distance we can look at their work in a broader context of their life and environment, and see a subtext that they weren’t able to see objectively.
My favorite non-academic quote on this topic is from Ann Patchett:
I believe literature takes place between the writer and the reader. You bring your imagination, they bring theirs, and together you make a book. It’s a kind of literary chemistry, and what’s great about this is that the book is going to be different for everyone who reads it.
I love the imaginative aspect of our discussions and even if we are off-base sometimes, it’s fun to just let the ideas flow. I think that’s one reason I favor fiction over non-fiction for book discussions.
I agree! It’s also why I love the format of this group. There are always SO many comments about things I hadn’t noticed, and then we all have the time to go back and reassess, and find links. Or finish the book!
We can start choosing our August book at any time! All suggestions welcome.
How about 1984?
Books considered previously (and which made it through the veto/lack of interest rounds):
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian
True biz by Sara Novic
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
New suggestions (and I purposely moved beyond the U.S. since our last four books have been set here):
The Whalebone Theatre - Joanna Quinn (My real-life book chose this one for its next discussion. Everyone I’ve run into is giving it a solid thumbs-up as a choice. I’m not yet through with it but also really like it.)
Age of Vice - Deepti Kapoor (Really good reviews but don’t know anyone who has read it yet.)
I also ran into a great number of books I want to read, many by CC bookclub repeat authors. I’ve had to still my fingers from adding another ten titles. Looks like my reading slump is over. YAY!
I have read Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and thought it was excellent and there will definitely be lots to discuss!