The book chosen for November is
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.
Image source: google.com/images
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Undressing the Moon Review
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month - therefore, we thought a novel related to this topic would be appropriate. (Just like next month, we're looking for a good-feel Fall novel).
In this novel, Piper, a 30 year old is coming to terms with her past, her illness, and upcoming death. As she reviews her life, we are taken back to when she was fourteen. Fourteen was a pivotal moment in her life, when her life is shattered. Although she tries to piece together her life, at the age of 30, her life breaks with her diagnosis, and she's put into a situation of reflection.
I like to see the themes and imagery when reading novels. Here are my top viewpoints.
Coming of Age
We first meet Piper when she is a child and turning into teenager, her artistic mother is her "everything" - her beauty in a dark childhood that is surrounded by the poverty they live in.
Her life changes when her mother abandons her, then the following of her father's departure. She has the company of her brother and her Aunt. She meets her "first love" - a boy who takes advantage of her. Her life is broken at a most pivotal moment when she needs the most support. She finds that support with a teacher, who encouraged her, who fell in love with her, and later, who she turns against.
Glass
The novel is written similar to like a mirror -- the author jumps back and forth from her adult life to her childhood/teens almost every other chapter. As one fragment in her life is revealed, it makes Piper reflect to a situation in her childhood/teens.
The strongest imagery of the glass was when Piper and her mother found a beautiful red vase. At first glance, they think it is perfect, and can be sold for a large sum of money. However, on further inspection, they see a small crack. As her mother grabs a hammer - she breaks it. This vase and shards of glass represent Piper's life. At one point she is seen as whole, but her mother's departure (the crack) leads to those glass shards (the broken pieces) - her loss childhood, loss of virginity, and loss of health.
Seasons
A smaller theme throughout the novel. Mainly to share the passing of time. I love the different seasons and always enjoy the imagery of time passing by. The author made a really good visual when Piper was a teen, and we see the summer's being filled with tourists, where winter her brother's attention was focused on skiing, and spring brought the muddy slush. Piper is very observant with the seasons, even in her later stages of life, when she watches the time pass by through the young, carefree girls at the park.
Friendship
A strong bond of friendship. Lasting friendship. The one person who had stayed with Piper her whole life - Becca. An amazing friend who not only supported her friend, but forgave her when needed. Becca was the one constant in her life, the one who helped her when needed. The one who was always there. She gave up her own ambitions to stay with Piper and support her at the end of her life.
Health / Life & Death
Health
From a medical perspective, I felt the author did a good job representing the illness, however at the same time, the author did not dive into it as deeply as I thought she would have. Guessing the time frame, it took place at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness, when many trials were starting. The symbolism of the illness was tied very closely to glass - where it was another "broken piece" in her life.
To note, the author also briefly mentioned other health issues separate from Breast Cancer.
We have depression with the mother and the father's addiction later in life (to cocaine)...
Life & Death
Her brother's wife pregnant, at a time when death (due to her illness) is looming over her.
Bites (ex: food)
Not much food was represented in the novel. What a pity. I really wanted to incorporate that with the book club.
In my personal opinion, this book was good. It was hard at first to grab my attention, and sometimes it was depressing. However, once reading more and understanding the style of writing, I enjoyed it, and the more I think of the themes, I really think they were well-represented.
~Patricia~
In this novel, Piper, a 30 year old is coming to terms with her past, her illness, and upcoming death. As she reviews her life, we are taken back to when she was fourteen. Fourteen was a pivotal moment in her life, when her life is shattered. Although she tries to piece together her life, at the age of 30, her life breaks with her diagnosis, and she's put into a situation of reflection.
I like to see the themes and imagery when reading novels. Here are my top viewpoints.
Coming of Age
We first meet Piper when she is a child and turning into teenager, her artistic mother is her "everything" - her beauty in a dark childhood that is surrounded by the poverty they live in.
Her life changes when her mother abandons her, then the following of her father's departure. She has the company of her brother and her Aunt. She meets her "first love" - a boy who takes advantage of her. Her life is broken at a most pivotal moment when she needs the most support. She finds that support with a teacher, who encouraged her, who fell in love with her, and later, who she turns against.
Glass
The novel is written similar to like a mirror -- the author jumps back and forth from her adult life to her childhood/teens almost every other chapter. As one fragment in her life is revealed, it makes Piper reflect to a situation in her childhood/teens.
The strongest imagery of the glass was when Piper and her mother found a beautiful red vase. At first glance, they think it is perfect, and can be sold for a large sum of money. However, on further inspection, they see a small crack. As her mother grabs a hammer - she breaks it. This vase and shards of glass represent Piper's life. At one point she is seen as whole, but her mother's departure (the crack) leads to those glass shards (the broken pieces) - her loss childhood, loss of virginity, and loss of health.
Seasons
A smaller theme throughout the novel. Mainly to share the passing of time. I love the different seasons and always enjoy the imagery of time passing by. The author made a really good visual when Piper was a teen, and we see the summer's being filled with tourists, where winter her brother's attention was focused on skiing, and spring brought the muddy slush. Piper is very observant with the seasons, even in her later stages of life, when she watches the time pass by through the young, carefree girls at the park.
Friendship
A strong bond of friendship. Lasting friendship. The one person who had stayed with Piper her whole life - Becca. An amazing friend who not only supported her friend, but forgave her when needed. Becca was the one constant in her life, the one who helped her when needed. The one who was always there. She gave up her own ambitions to stay with Piper and support her at the end of her life.
Health / Life & Death
Health
From a medical perspective, I felt the author did a good job representing the illness, however at the same time, the author did not dive into it as deeply as I thought she would have. Guessing the time frame, it took place at the start of Breast Cancer Awareness, when many trials were starting. The symbolism of the illness was tied very closely to glass - where it was another "broken piece" in her life.
To note, the author also briefly mentioned other health issues separate from Breast Cancer.
We have depression with the mother and the father's addiction later in life (to cocaine)...
Life & Death
Her brother's wife pregnant, at a time when death (due to her illness) is looming over her.
Bites (ex: food)
Not much food was represented in the novel. What a pity. I really wanted to incorporate that with the book club.
In my personal opinion, this book was good. It was hard at first to grab my attention, and sometimes it was depressing. However, once reading more and understanding the style of writing, I enjoyed it, and the more I think of the themes, I really think they were well-represented.
~Patricia~
Life in a metaphor
I finished reading Undressing the Moon yesterday, and as expected the novel is an emotional accounting of a woman's experience with breast cancer. Granted, the book is a work of fiction, and although I don't make a habit of regularly reading stories of how individuals grapple with cancer, this one in particular was incredibly well written and poignant.
Greenwood paints a truly striking picture of Piper, the woman who has been literally and figuratively "broken" at three main times in her life: the present in her battle with cancer, when she was a pre-teen and her parents emotionally (and in the case of her mother, also physically) deserted her and her older brother Quinn, and in her early high school years when she has her first serious romantic liaisons (one with a peer Blue Henderson who takes her physical virginity/innocence, and the other with her theatre teacherwho takes her emotional/internal virginity/innocence and whom she then erroneously pins a false claim of rape to and regrets doing so later on).
Greenwood consistently revisits Piper's Mother's fascination with creating artistic pieces out of broken glass, and the characteristics of glass remain a constant metaphor throughout the book... feeling exposed, shattered, looking for wholeness, and finally trying to reach a point of understanding and accepting incompleteness.
While the metaphor is poignant, easy to relate to and visually striking, what I most appreciated about this novel was its blunt yet sensitive style. Piper struggles through finding herself as a woman, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a lover and a cancer patient, and while she does feel the weight and sadness of the painful aspects of the events she's experienced in her life - rather than feel pity for her, we the audience feel the heaviness of her burdens, and are simultaneously relieved when she begins to find peace and acceptance, but also are greatly moved by her ability to not quite rise above her circumstances, but gracefully continue moving on in her life in spite of them.
For me I appreciated the "realness" of this novel - the fact that events were not made overtly horrific or joyful just to juxtapose the good with the bad or to create a false sense of empathy for Piper (we genuinely come to identify with her in a natural way) - and the fact that the book used her cancer as more of a catapult into the idea of feeling broken inside, something many of us have felt at times, as opposed to the more abstract concept of purely facing death (although facing death/coming to accept one's circumstances, does exist within the novel, the book probes deeper and does not put death on a pedestal to be tamed).
At any rate, having not had cancer myself (fortunately) I can't compare this novel to any true feelings on that front, but I can say that as someone who has been majorly ill and had near-death experiences, this book did a truly beautiful job at capturing the things that I too really focused on when in those circumstances - meaningful relationships, the events that never seemed resolved, natural beauty, regret, and love.
Although emotional and sorrowful at times, I would highly recommend this novel.
Of course, you shouldn't take my word for it...go read it for yourself and let us know what you think.
Also, we're trying to decide what we should read for next month. Patricia has put her vote in for something that takes place in New England (as Undressing the Moon did actually, it takes place in VT), has a more uplifting/feel-good theme, and is set in the fall/winter.
Any ideas out there? Any books you have read you would like us to review?
Thanks for reading.
Greenwood paints a truly striking picture of Piper, the woman who has been literally and figuratively "broken" at three main times in her life: the present in her battle with cancer, when she was a pre-teen and her parents emotionally (and in the case of her mother, also physically) deserted her and her older brother Quinn, and in her early high school years when she has her first serious romantic liaisons (one with a peer Blue Henderson who takes her physical virginity/innocence, and the other with her theatre teacherwho takes her emotional/internal virginity/innocence and whom she then erroneously pins a false claim of rape to and regrets doing so later on).
Greenwood consistently revisits Piper's Mother's fascination with creating artistic pieces out of broken glass, and the characteristics of glass remain a constant metaphor throughout the book... feeling exposed, shattered, looking for wholeness, and finally trying to reach a point of understanding and accepting incompleteness.
While the metaphor is poignant, easy to relate to and visually striking, what I most appreciated about this novel was its blunt yet sensitive style. Piper struggles through finding herself as a woman, a daughter, a sister, a friend, a lover and a cancer patient, and while she does feel the weight and sadness of the painful aspects of the events she's experienced in her life - rather than feel pity for her, we the audience feel the heaviness of her burdens, and are simultaneously relieved when she begins to find peace and acceptance, but also are greatly moved by her ability to not quite rise above her circumstances, but gracefully continue moving on in her life in spite of them.
For me I appreciated the "realness" of this novel - the fact that events were not made overtly horrific or joyful just to juxtapose the good with the bad or to create a false sense of empathy for Piper (we genuinely come to identify with her in a natural way) - and the fact that the book used her cancer as more of a catapult into the idea of feeling broken inside, something many of us have felt at times, as opposed to the more abstract concept of purely facing death (although facing death/coming to accept one's circumstances, does exist within the novel, the book probes deeper and does not put death on a pedestal to be tamed).
At any rate, having not had cancer myself (fortunately) I can't compare this novel to any true feelings on that front, but I can say that as someone who has been majorly ill and had near-death experiences, this book did a truly beautiful job at capturing the things that I too really focused on when in those circumstances - meaningful relationships, the events that never seemed resolved, natural beauty, regret, and love.
Although emotional and sorrowful at times, I would highly recommend this novel.
Of course, you shouldn't take my word for it...go read it for yourself and let us know what you think.
Also, we're trying to decide what we should read for next month. Patricia has put her vote in for something that takes place in New England (as Undressing the Moon did actually, it takes place in VT), has a more uplifting/feel-good theme, and is set in the fall/winter.
Any ideas out there? Any books you have read you would like us to review?
Thanks for reading.
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