All About Books discussion

Ok, we've made it!
We both managed to get this book and are eager to start it - I've actually already open it to have an idea, but I'm going two days to Bologna to see friends so I won't read it again before sunday or monday.
Is anyone interested in joying us? Has anyone read it and would like to say something about it?
Petra????

I hope to finish the book I am currently reading and start Gertrude before monday.

I really enjoyed this book. I wonder if it would survive a reread?
Laura, I'm not sure if I can join in. I've just started 2 large tomes. I'll be following the discussion closely, though, and will pull my copy off of the shelf and browse along (that might turn into a reread but I make no promises).

We'll be here for you Petra! I'll start again on monday not to be too ahead od dely!

Started this evening but I have read only the first 14 pages. I'm liking it so far. I read very slowly when I don't read in Italian so I will need the double of time to finish it.

I stopped and now I have to finish As I Lay Dying!!! In a day or two I hope to pick it up again!!!

La Fontaine that talks in verses is really nice and funny.
I am liking it so far though I am only at pag. 17 :/
Now I started the letter that Oscar Wilde writes to Jim Morrison and he talks about the mouth of a boy that disappeard and he had to pay his bill. Is there something I should know about Wilde's life to understand better this detail?

When I red that bit I wondered the same. Not that I know of!!!
I was supposed to finish As I Lay Dying today as to start again with Gertrude tomorrow afternoon, but I've received my new sony ereader and I'm playing with it and Goodreads. You'll have to wait for me another day!!!

LauraT wrote: "When I red that bit I wondered the same. Not that I know of!!!
I was supposed to finish As I Lay Dying today as to start again with Gertrude tomorrow afternoon, but I've received my new sony ereade..."

Don't worry! ;)

dely wrote: "La Fontaine that talks in verses is really nice and funny.
I am liking it so far though I am only at pag. 17 :/
Now I started the letter that Oscar Wilde writes to Jim Morrison and he talks about t..."

Well Wilde was gay so I suspect that the boy was there as his "friend"...

Leslie wrote: "Well Wilde was gay so I suspect that the boy was there as his "friend"..."

Yes, I know but I couldn't understand why he remembers the teeth of this boy. I have thought that this boy could have bitten him during some "favor" he was doing (sorry, but I really don't know how to say it without becoming vulgar! :D). But also in this way, I am not able to understand why he had to buy his dental bill (I have an idea but I prefer not to tell!).
Or Wilde was in love with this boy and payed for everything he needed.

dely wrote: "Leslie wrote: "Well Wilde was gay so I suspect that the boy was there as his "friend"..."

Yes, I know but I couldn't understand why he remembers the teeth of this boy. I have thought that this boy..."

I don't know but would have guessed he was paying all the bills...

Leslie wrote: "I don't know but would have guessed he was paying all the bills... "


I was hoping there was behind an event that really happened in his life.

Laura do you read a lot in English? I am finding this book really difficult, I am always with the dictionary in the hands (and so I loose time and read even more slowly).

I usually read half of my books in english - but I'm graduated in english literature and I've started reading books in english since my university days ages ago now!!!!
I wouldn't use the dictionary a lot though if I were you. Especially when reading a work of fiction we've alsways been advised not to stop the reading too often, but to try to grasp the meaning of the "missing" word from the contest. Only if you miss the sense of the whole sentence, or even better of the whole page, it was the time to use the dictionary.
Of course I read more slowly than in italina though!!!! And I don't know all the words as well!!!

LauraT wrote: "I usually read half of my books in english - but I'm graduated in english literature and I've started reading books in english since my university days ages ago now!!!!
I wouldn't use the dictionar..."

I am not able to don't stop if I find a word I don't understand. Perhaps I only think to understand the meaning but I can't be sure if I don't take the dictionary (and sometimes it happens that the word I was looking for has a different meaning of what I thought).
In this way I start reading, I look for a word and then I re-read the whole sentence or paragraph. It's because of this that I need the double of time to read in a language that isn't Italian. It would be much better if there would be an ebook of this book!
Other times I can read whole pages without the dictionary, it happend with other books, but this one is a little bit difficult, at least for me. Nevertheless, I am enjoying it!

Laura, did you already arrive to the part when Alice Toklas goes to the sorceress? This one wanted to be payed with a cake. Well, looking for the grave of Stein and Toklas I I stumbled about this: http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_To...
Her cakes were famous!

I am sure I am missing a lot of funny details because I don't know the lives of all the celebrities who are in the book.

I was thinking the same:I see a lot of hints I get, but I'm sure a lot I miss because I don't know them well. For indtance in a lot of recepies Alice gives or talks about she almost akways mention hasish. Did they use drugs back then?
And had Sarah Bernard lost a leg in her life?
I liked the way the author "pulls the legs" of Proust and his "wordy" (verboso in italian!) style!

You two are making me want to read this book again. I loved the Proust chapter but can't remember why exactly. I think it was the long, drawn out sentences of navel-gazing inaction. In the book, isn't the Proust cat a detective? The thought of a dreamy, inactive detective makes me laugh.

LauraT wrote: "I was thinking the same:I see a lot of hints I get, but I'm sure a lot I miss because I don't know them well. For indtance in a lot of recepies Alice gives or talks about she almost akways mention ..."

I don't know if Toklas and Stein personally used drugs but Alice really made cakes with cannabis. She has written also a recipe book but I don't think there is the recipe of her famous cake: The Alice B. Toklas Cookbook and Aromas and Flavors of the Past and Present. They seem both interesting.

I still haven't read the part with Proust.

Petra wrote: "You two are making me want to read this book again. I loved the Proust chapter but can't remember why exactly. I think it was the long, drawn out sentences of navel-gazing inaction. In the book, is..."

That's it!!!!

dely wrote: "LauraT wrote: "I was thinking the same:I see a lot of hints I get, but I'm sure a lot I miss because I don't know them well. For indtance in a lot of recepies Alice gives or talks about she almost ..."

I'll have to look for them.

LauraT wrote: "And had Sarah Bernard lost a leg in her life?"

It seems so.
Read "later career": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Be...

Ouch!

Somebody knows something about Rossini's eye? I have looked for some informations on the internet but I couldn't find anything. Did he really lost an eye in real life?

In the book he is a funny character using often Italian words in his speech and he is a lovable old man :)

I read it a few years ago and liked it. It's a thoughtful kind of book, not a lot of action. For me the whole concept was unique and fascinating.

Poor old Rossini! I liked him much myself.
And no, I haven't fund anything about his eye as well!!!

I have finished the book yesterday and for me it is 4 star book. It was really nice and funny!

My opinion exactly - even if the end was a bit "lower" than the average of the whole book: as if the author didn't know how to end!
And since the title reminds of the overfamous Godot, I would have liked to have the "same" ending!
But it has been a really enjoyable read

LauraT wrote: "My opinion exactly - even if the end was a bit "lower" than the average of the whole book: as if the author didn't know how to end!
And since the title reminds of the overfamous Godot, I would have..."

I liked the way it finished, I don't think it couldn't finish in another way and I have could not bear an (view spoiler)[everlasting waiting! (hide spoiler)]

dely wrote: I liked the way it finished, I don't think it couldn't finish in another way and I have could not bear an everlasting waiting!"
That's why I can't stand Godot!!!

LauraT wrote: "dely wrote: I liked the way it finished, I don't think it couldn't finish in another way and I have could not bear an everlasting waiting!"
That's why I can't stand Godot!!!"

I loved it! The ending in Waiting for Godot was perfect for that kind of book; it would have been an odd end for Waiting for Gertrude.

No way it makes me mad that those two dumm men stays all time on stage waiting for something/someone which will never come!

I'm so glad you both enjoyed the book!!!
I, too, thought the ending was just right for the story. After all the waiting, finally it will come to an end and (view spoiler)[lovers are reunited (hide spoiler)]. Perfect!
There was one part that I found really disturbing in the book and that was (view spoiler)[the rape scene (hide spoiler)]. It was so violent and devastating. It was hard to read that scene.

I can understand it Petra; not "in line" with the rest of the book, which is light and "easy"

Exactly, Laura. I suppose its a matter of "from violence comes beauty" or something like that but I'm not convinced that it had to go that way. Also, it kind of tarnishes the memory of Jim Morrison. :(
He may have been wild but I hope he wasn't capable of such violence.

Petra wrote: "Exactly, Laura. I suppose its a matter of "from violence comes beauty" or something like that but I'm not convinced that it had to go that way. Also, it kind of tarnishes the memory of Jim Morrison..."

We all hope so!

LauraT wrote: "No way it makes me mad that those two dumm men stays all time on stage waiting for something/someone which will never come!"

It was funny. It doesn't matter what they were waiting for and if this arrived; Beckett was able to demonstrate non-sense of life and that there is no purpose in life: people are dumb because they are waiting for something that won't arrive and they scrumble for something they don't know. Beckett has been a genius writing Waiting for Godot.


Petra wrote: "There was one part that I found really disturbing in the book and that was... It was so violent and devastating. It was hard to read that scene. "

I didn't consider it disturbing also because it wasn't explicit, there weren't gruesome details.

Petra wrote: "Exactly, Laura. I suppose its a matter of "from violence comes beauty" or something like that but I'm not convinced that it had to go that way."

It doesn't mean that from violence comes beauty, but in my opinion it can mean that also from a despicable act can rise something good and beautiful. I don't want to justify violence, but I think it means that we should look to positive things of life and a violence can be forgiven if from this violence comes something good: life.
It's like the circle of life, real life; there can't be only beautiful and nice happenings, we must accept also violence, above all if from it comes something good.
Me, for example, has found much more cruel when Jim Morrison (view spoiler)[killed the kittens and mother-cat agreed (hide spoiler)]. But how much cruel this can seem, it's this way in animal realm.

You may be right dely.
How I like this discussion!!!!

Dely, I like that point of view. It's been many years (maybe 10?) since I've read the book. The details are hazy and all I've got left are some feelings. I don't even remember your spoiler comment :(
Your view doesn't justify violence. It shows that life is a bit of everything and from anything beauty can arise.