Tome Time discussion

Read to the end of Epilogue by 03/06/20.

Leave your insights and comments below.

Well, I loved this book. It had so many dreamlike discussion points and I never really knew what was real and what was fiction in his world.

I really found the Hempstock’s fascinating, especially at the end of the story with the car and the two moons, as though he either never really grew up, or they wanted to leave a little piece of themselves in his mind, a small enough seed of interest to bring him back every so often.

Did you notice how on the cover art that there is no hand holding his. He is alone. So were they even real to begin with?

Such a good book!

Karen wrote: " Did you notice how on the cover art that there is no hand holding his. He is alone. So were they even real to begin with? "

Now you mention it, that does make a lot of sense. As if it's a childhood fantasy world that he retreats back to from time to time when having to deal with something difficult - in this case, a funeral. After all, why not decide that your new nanny is not just a bossy cow, but a monster from another dimension whom only you can defeat? My experience of infants' school would have been better if only I'd realised that's what Mrs Hobson actually was. Which is kind of appropriate because the whole book feels like it's very specifically aimed at adults who are nostalgic for children's stories.

I really liked the writing, but I did wonder at the end when I was reading the acknowledgements where he says it started off as a short story whether it might actually have worked better as a (long-ish) short story instead of a novel. The plot felt like it was stretched ever so slightly thin.