Mink River
Brian Doyle
Oregon State University Press
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780870715853
Summary
Like Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Brian Doyle's stunning fiction debut brings a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people.
In a small fictional town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There's a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a crime committed, and there's an unbelievably huge picnic on the football field. Babies are born. A car is cut in half with a saw. A river confesses what it's thinking.
It's the tale of a town, written in a distinct and lyrical voice, and readers will close the book more than a little sad to leave the village of Neawanaka, on the wet coast of Oregon, beneath the hills that used to boast the biggest trees in the history of the world. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
In addition to Mink River, Brian Doyle has published twelve books, including Grace Notes, Bin Laden's Bald Spot & Other Stories, Thirsty for the Joy: Australian and American Voices, and Epiphanies and Elegies. He edits Portland Magazine at the University of Portland.
Doyle’s essays have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Orion, American Scholar, and in newspapers and magazines around the world. His essays have also been reprinted in the annual Best American Essays, Best American Science & Nature Writing, and Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Community is the beating heart of this fresh, memorable debut with an omniscient narrator and dozens of characters living in Neawanaka, a small coastal Oregon town. Daniel Cooney, a 12-year-old who wears his hair in three different-colored braids, has a terrible bike accident in the woods and is rescued by a bear. Daniel's grandfather, Worried Man, is able to sense others' pain even from a distance and goes on a dangerous mountain mission to track down the source of time with his dear friend, Cedar. Other key stories involve a young police officer whose life is threatened, a doctor who smokes one cigarette for each apostle per day, a lusty teenage couple who work at a shingle factory, and a crow who can speak English. The fantastical blends with the natural elements in this original, postmodern, shimmering tapestry of smalltown life that profits from the oral traditions of the town's population of Native Americans and Irish immigrants. Those intrigued by the cultural heritage of the Pacific Northwest will treasure every lyrical sentence.
Publishers Weekly
Stories that sing in many voices, "braided and woven…leading one to another," shape Doyle's debut novel.... Verdict: Award-winning essayist Doyle writes with an inventive and seductive style that echoes that of ancient storytellers. This lyrical mix of natural history, poetry, and Salish and Celtic lore offers crime, heartaches, celebrations, healing, and death. Readers who appreciate modern classics like Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio or William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying will find much to savor here. Enthusiastically recommended. —Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO
Library Journal
The prosaic and the spiritual merge in a portrait of life in a small Oregon town. Doyle's debut novel makes heavy demands on the reader's capacity to suspend disbelief: In the Pacific Coast village of Neawanaka, a crow is an intimate confidante; a bear kindly steps in to save a human life; and the nature of time is somehow lurking in the nearby mountains.The humans who inhabit this place are earthbound folk, though, and Doyle's main point is to show how the mystical can influence otherwise ordinary lives.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Some have described the writing style in Mink River as: stream of consciousness, like a babbling brook, or a lullaby. What did you think of the style?
2. What are your thoughts on the structure of the story; did you like the alternating chapters, interwoven plot lines?
3. What role does the Oregon Coast play as a setting for the story? Is this setting essential? Why or why not?
4. What do you think of Cedar’s reply to No Horses about habits and people who helped him get through dark times? Based on your own life experiences, is there a piece of advice you’d add to what he says?
5. Which characters in the book show the “certain ferocious attention to things” that Cedar describes? What are some examples, and can you name ways this habit has helped those characters through dark times?
6. Story telling is an important activity for several characters in the book. Do you have stories within your own family that you have passed along? Why does the author seem to think that story telling is important?
7. How do you feel about how death of the various characters is portrayed in Mink River? Consider the characters’ types, how they died and how their experience just after death is described.
8. What did you think of Moses? Did you like the idea of a talking crow? What do you think of magical realism in general?
9. The Department of Public Works handled much more than city maintenance. Do you think there is a place for a department of public works of this nature within your own city?
10. Discuss the community of Neawanka: its strengths and weaknesses.
11. What do you think the source of Nora’s pain—she says it is “no hope”, what does she mean? Is her pain ever resolved?
12. Abuse is featured in the book, how do you think this difficult subject was handled?
13. Each character within the book is either struggling or searching. Choose a character and describe the struggle or search and describe also the resolution, if any.
14. How are music, art, and language important aspects of Mink River’s community?
15. Describe some of the themes presented in the book. Are there any that you relate to?
16. What do you think Worried Man will be able to offer his family and community as a result of his stroke?
17. Discuss the doctor’s life and his role in the community and his study of the Bible.
18. What happened when Sara’s baby first made a sound; what was the sound and what affect did it have on the family?
19. What was your reaction when Declan killed his cows? What did you think of the consequence, i.e. how the community responded?
20. Share any other impressions you have of the book. Does the author’s style remind you of any other authors? Does Mink River remind you of any other books?
(Questions courtesy of author and Oswego, Oregon, Public Library.)
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The Devil All the Time
Donald Ray Pollock, 2011
Knopf Doubleday
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307744869
Summary
In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic overtones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting.
Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrificial blood he pours on his “prayer log.”
There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial killers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.
Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1954
• Where—Knockemstiff, Ohio, USA
• Education—M.F.A., Ohio State University
• Awards—PEN-Robert Bingham Fellowship;
Guggenheinm Fellowship
• Currently—lives in Chillicothe, Ohio
Donald Ray Pollock is an American writer, who has lived his entire adult life in Chillicothe, Ohio, where he worked at the Mead Paper Mill as a laborer and truck driver until age 50, when he enrolled in the creative writing program at The Ohio State University. While there, Doubleday published his debut short story collection, Knockemstiff, and the New York Times regularly posted his election dispatches from southern Ohio throughout the 2008 campaign.
Pollock is the recipient of the 2009 PEN/Robert Bingham Award. He also won the 2009 Devil's Kitchen Award in Prose sponsored by the English Department of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His work has appeared in various literary journals, including Epoch, Sou'wester, Granta, Third Coast, River Styx, The Journal, Boulevard, and PEN America.
His second book, The Devil All The Time, published in 2011, was listed by Publisher's Weekly as one of the top ten books of the year. He was recently awarded a 2012 Guggenheim Fellowship. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
Pollock knows how to dunk readers into a scene and when to pull them out gasping, and the muscular current of each plot line exerts a continuous pull toward the engulfing falls. Important as well, and welcome, is the native intelligence he grants each of his characters. While many of them may be backwoods, none are backwards; and almost all are rich with a fatalistic humor that is often their sole redeeming feature.
Josh Ritter - New York Times
You'll want to lock your doors. Donald Ray Pollock's first novel…is pretty much what the title predicts: a literary tsunami of pure evil…The book is grotesque, violent, haunting, perverse and harrowing—and very good. You may be repelled, you may be shocked, you will almost certainly be horrified, but you will read every last word.
Robert Goolrick - Washington Post
Pollock's first novel, The Devil All the Time, should cement his reputation as a significant voice in American fiction.... [He] deftly shifts from one perspective to another, without any clunky transitions—the prose just moves without signal or stumble, opening up the story in new ways again and again...where any prime-time television show can incite nail-biting with a lurking killer, Pollock has done much more. He's layered decades of history, shown the inner thoughts of a collage of characters, and we understand how deeply violence and misfortune have settled into the bones of this place. The question is much more than whether someone will die—it is, can the cycle of bloodletting break? This applies both to the people Pollock so skillfully enlivens as it does to the place he's taken as his literary heritage.
Carolyn Kellogg - Los Angeles Times
The Devil All the Time...fulfills the promise in [Pollock's] 2008 short-story collection, Knockemstiff, named after his real-life hometown, where life as is tough as its name suggests. His fictional characters find ways to make it tougher. Devil, as violent as the bloodiest parts of the Old Testament...invites comparisons to Flannery O'Connor and Raymond Carver, who mined the grace and guilt in the hopeless lives of lost souls....But it's not so much what happens as how Pollock, with the brutal beauty of spare writing, brings it all together
Bob Minzesheimer - USA Today
As Arvin grows up—The Devil All the Time's narrative arcs from the end of World War II to the late 1960s—life's twists and turns provide him with a measure of salvation from his own past, and from the people whose soul-damaged lives Pollock has set down so indelibly on the blood-red altar of his incendiary imagination.
Lisa Shea - ELLE
(Starred review.) If Pollock’s powerful collection Knockemstiff was a punch to the jaw, his follow-up, a novel set in the violent soul-numbing towns of southern Ohio and West Virginia, feels closer to a mule’s kick, and how he draws these folks and their inevitably hopeless lives without pity is what the kick’s all about.... [H]appiness is elusive... Pollock pulls [his characters] all together, the pace relentless, and just when it seems like no one can ever catch a break, a good guy does, but not in any predictable way.
Publishers Weekly
Pollock first triumphed with his story collection, Knockemstiff, about the Midwestern town of that name where he grew up and its sad but tough residents. Here he moves on to full-length fiction with a terse examination of America's violent underbelly. Lots of in-house excitement; watch.
Library Journal
This debut novel occasionally flashes the promise that the author showed in his highly praised short-story collection, [Knockemstiff], but falls short of fulfilling it.... Set again in rural, impoverished Knockemstiff and nearby Mead, the novel opens with the relationship of young Arvin Russell and his father, Willard, a haunted World War II vet who marries a beautiful woman and then watches her die from cancer.... Though there's a hard-bitten realism to the character of Arvin, most of the [other characters] seem like gothic noir redneck caricature.... Pollock remains a singular stylist, but he has better books in him than this.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Devil All the Time:
1.Why does religion play so prominent a role in this book? Does the novel present a single religious vision...or a number of different visions? Talk about each character's preoccupation with God and Jesus, sacrifice and pain, hell and salvation.
2. What role does poverty play in the characters' lives? In what ways are they also shaped by sense of place, the land itself?
3. Talk about each of the characters. Do you feel sympathy or revulsion for any of them? Are you overwhelmed by their violent deeds...or are you able to eek out some sense of their humanity? What motivates them to commit the brutality they perpetrate on their victims?
4. Does redemption exist for these people? In what way does Arvin Eugene Russell point to its possibility?
5. The deputy sheriff says, at one point, "some people were born just so they could be buried." What do you make of that statement? Do you believe there is truth in it—a great deal...some...or none at all?
6. What does the book's title mean?
7. How did you experience this novel as you read it? What were your emotional reactions? Did you want to put it down and walk away...or were you compelled to keep turning pages?
Unsaid
Neil Abramson, 2012
Center Street
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781599954097
Summary
In this explosive debut novel, Neil Abramson explores the beauty and redemptive power of human-animal relationships and the true meaning of communication in all of its diverse forms.
As a veterinarian, Helena was required to choose when to end the lives of the terminally ill animals in her care. Now that she has died, she is afraid to face them and finally admit to herself that her thirty-seven years of life were meaningless, error-ridden, and forgettable. So Helena lingers, a silent observer haunted by the life she left behind-her shattered attorney husband, David; her houseful of damaged but beloved animals; and her final project, Cindy, a chimpanzee trained to use sign language who may be able to unlock the mysteries of animal communication and consciousness.
When Cindy is scheduled for a research experiment that will undoubtedly take her life, David must call upon everything he has learned from Helena to save her. In the explosive courtroom drama that follows, all the threads of Helena's life entwine and tear as Helena and David confront their mistakes, grief, and loss and discover what it really means to be human. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Born and raised in New York City, Neil never expected to find himself anything other than a city dweller ….. until he married his wife, a veterinarian. “I went from living on Central Park South with two cats and a dead cactus from a prior relationship to living over an hour out of Manhattan in the middle of the woods with horses, a pig, dogs, cats, chinchillas and a parrot—and those were only the ‘domesticated” animals.’ We have since added two small humans to the mix.”
A partner in a large Manhattan law firm where he specializes in labor and employment law and litigation, Neil also works on animal rights and animal welfare issues on a pro bono basis. He’s been active in animal rights/animal welfare circles for over two decades, having served on the Board of Directors of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, as a founding member of the New York City Bar Association Committee on Legal Issues Relating to Animals and been recognized for his animal legal work by the ASPCA.
Together with his wife, he founded Finally Home-A Sanctuary for Animals, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing a safe haven for lost and abused animals in southern New York State. A percentage of the proceeds from the sale of Unsaid is being donated to Finally Home. (From the publihser.)
Book Reviews
Rarely has a novel captured so movingly the deep bonds between people and the animals that share their lives. Veterinarian Helena Colden has died of breast cancer, but she still watches over her shattered attorney husband and their menagerie-dogs, cats, horses, and a pig, all with personalities as distinct as their human companions. Helena, who narrates, remains guilt-ridden over the unresolved fate of a research chimp that communicates at the level of a 4-year-old child. How each of these vivid characters finds a way to let go and move on is at the heart of this entrancing tale.
Parade
In this heartfelt though predictable debut, Abramson explores the interconnecting relationships between animals and people, as well as the sensitive topic of scientific animal testing. Though wearying at times with endless narrative on compassion for all living beings, the novel is still touching and emotional. Thirty-seven-year-old lawyer David Colden is reeling from the death of his veterinarian wife, Helena, when he is approached by one of her colleagues, Jaycee, who worked with Helena teaching Cindy, a chimpanzee, to use American Sign Language. The funding for the chimpanzee project is about to come to a halt, and Jaycee initially wants David to obtain a court order so Cindy isn't used in scientific experiments. David refuses at first, too distraught over his loss and taking care of all Helena's pets: three dogs, six cats, horses, and a pig. But when Jaycee breaks into the government institution to "save" Cindy and is arrested, David agrees to represent her in court. Helena narrates from the afterlife and is an important presence in the courtroom during Jaycee's trial. Sudden life-changing events teach David love and acceptance, and while emotion often trumps plot, the focus on animal rights (Abramson is a lawyer who has been recognized by the ASPCA for his legal work) will resonate with animal lovers.
Publishers Weekly
In Abramson's debut, lawyer and animal rights advocate Helena has passed away after a long battle with cancer. Fearful of passing on to the next stage, she watches how her husband, friends, and pets cope with her death. A young veterinarian, Helena had a multitude of animals that David, her lawyer husband, now cares for as he goes through the grieving process. Joshua, her business partner, is overwhelmed with work in her absence. Her friend and colleague Jaycee can no longer prove to other researchers and government officials that a chimpanzee named Cindy responded in American Sign Language to her and Helena. Because of this, Jaycee's funding is pulled, and a legal fight begins as she enlists David's help to try and keep Cindy from being used for other scientific experiments that could possibly harm the chimp. Verdict:Abramson delivers a touching and dramatic story that is sure to please animal lovers. Though the heavy emphasis on animal rights becomes repetitive, overall this is a solid story of loss and love. —Joy Gunn, Henderson Libs., NV
Library Journal
The premise in lawyer and animal-rights activist Abramson's first novel—about a recently deceased veterinarian keeping her eye on the humans and animals she's left behind—is that the "consciousness" of all living beings must be respected equally.... The more morally evolved characters (most of them grieving a human loss) find solace mainly through their animal relationships. Readers will either adore or despise this combination of animal-rights zealotry and love-conquers-all spirituality.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Unsaid is about the healing power of animals. Have you had any personal experiences where an animal has helped you heal? Physically? Emotionally? Spiritually?
2. In the novel, one of the characters points out that there is a distinction between “unspoken” and “unsaid." Do you think there is a difference? What is it?
3. What characters in the book have left things “unsaid” when we first meet them? What remains “unsaid” by the end of the novel?
4. In the novel, Helena is unable to move on after she dies. Do you believe that her continued presence is voluntary or involuntary? In what way? What is the mechanism for her final release?
5. The novel ends with the word “Amen.” Why do you think the author chose that word?
6. The novel points out an ever-present tension between specieism and anthropomorphism. Is anti-specieism always anthropomorphic? Is anti-anthropomorphism always speciest?
7. Is there an ethical way to use animals in invasive science research? What if the research causes the death of the animal?
8. Which characters in the novel are motivated by rejection? Which are motivated by the fear of rejection?
9. Cindy is limited in her ability to communicate with humans. In what ways are the human characters limited in their ability to communicate? What has caused these limitations?
10. Does Clifford’s communication impairment result in his understanding more or less that the other characters? What does your answer lead you to conclude about the relationship between speech and understanding?
11. At the end of the novel, David insists that he be the one to inject the euthanasia solution that ends his dog’s life. Have you ever made that request? Would you consider doing so?
12. Many of the human characters in the book experience grief. Do you belief that animals experience grief? Have you ever witnessed an animal displaying grief?
13. One of the themes of the book is that meaning only comes from juxtaposition and dissonance. If you could choose, would you “live small” in a numb and painless existence or seek meaning and purpose even though that price of that understanding is pain?
14. How would the story have been different if narrated by Clifford? If narrated by David?
(Questions from the author's website.)
The Snowman
Jo Nesbo, 2011
Random House
512 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780307742995
Summary
Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbo’s antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity.
Oslo in November. The first snow of the season has fallen. A boy named Jonas wakes in the night to find his mother gone. Out his window, in the cold moonlight, he sees the snowman that inexplicably appeared in the yard earlier in the day. Around its neck is his mother’s pink scarf.
Hole suspects a link between a menacing letter he’s received and the disappearance of Jonas’s mother—and of perhaps a dozen other women, all of whom went missing on the day of a first snowfall. As his investigation deepens, something else emerges: he is becoming a pawn in an increasingly terrifying game whose rules are devised—and constantly revised—by the killer.
Fiercely suspenseful, its characters brilliantly realized, its atmosphere permeated with evil, The Snowman is the electrifying work of one of the best crime writers of our time. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—March 29, 1960
• Where—Oslo, Norway
• Education—Norwegian School of Economics
• Currently—lives in Oslo
Jo Nesbo is a Norwegian author, musician, and former business analyst, whose books have been translated into over 50 languages and sold 23 million copies.
Personal
Nesbo grew up in Molde. He played top-flight football (soccer) for Molde FK until he tore the cruciate ligaments in his knee at the age of 18. When he could no longer play sports, he signed up for military service, spending spent three years in Norway's far north. Later he applied to and was accepted at the Norwegian School of Economics.
Graduating with a degree in Economics and Business Administration, Nesbo worked as a stockbroker and then financial analyst. He also found time to form a rock band as main vocalist and songwriter. Although the band—Di Derre (Them There)—topped the Norwegian charts with its second album—and their concerts were all sell-outs—Nesbo continued crunching numbers by day while gigging at night.
Eventually exhausted and burned out, Nesbo took flight, literally, to Australia. On the airplane for 30 hours, he fleshed out a story on his laptop—about a guy named Harry—and the rest is publishing history.
In addition to writing and music, Nesbo is a dedicated rock climber and has climbed sport routes up to French grade 7c. He lives close to his former wife and their daughter in Oslo.
Harry Hole
Nesbo is primarily known for his 10 crime novels featuring Inspector Harry Hole, a tough detective working for Crime Squad and later with the National Criminal Investigation Service (Kripos). His investigations take him from Oslo to Australia and the Congo Republic. Hole takes on seemingly unconnected cases, involving a range of criminals: serial killers, bank robbers, gangsters, or the establishment. But he also spends a significant amount of time battling alcoholism and his own demons. The Harry Hole novels are multi-layered, violent and often feature women in peril.
Doctor Proctor
Reminiscent of Roald Dahl's books, Nesbo's four Doctor Proctor books for young readers focus on the antics of a crazy professor, his next-door neighbor Lisa, and and Lisa's peculiar friend Nilly.The books are concerned with self-identify, imagination, and courage
Stand-alones
Blood on Snow follows Olav Johansen, a fixer for Oslo crime boss Daniel Hoffman. Olav has just found the woman of his dreams; the only problem is that she's his boss' wife and that his boss has hired him to kill her.
Midnight Sun features Jon, or Ulf as he calls himself, a hapless criminal on the run from his boss, an Oslo drug lord known as the Fisherman. (Author bio adapted from Wikipedia and the author's website. Retrieved 2/17/2016.)
Book Reviews
A fiendishly complex and terrifically entertaining plot.... Nesbo has a horrormeister's flair for transforming natural scenes into ominous situations.
Marilyn Stasio - New York Times
A superb thriller—smart, stylish, beautifully paced and meticulously plotted.
New York Newsday
This is crime writing of the highest order, in which the characters are as strong as the story, where an atmosphere of evil permeates, and the tension begins in the first chapter and never lets up.
London Times
Spine-chilling.... This most ambitious of Nesbo’s crime novels banishes any fears that the omniscient serial killer scenario has been exhausted.
Independent (UK)
Macabre and disturbing.... Deft plotting, strong characterization, adrenaline-fuelled action sequences and a whole raft of social issues raised along the way make this book a spectacularly good example of how a tried and tested (and often tired) formula can be made exhilarating and fresh.
Guardian (UK)
The writer most likely to take the ice-cold crown in the critically acclaimed—and now bestselling—category of Nordic noir.
Los Angeles Times
Nesbo's books have a serious, socially significant heft, as well as a confident (even cocky) narrative stride that is unmatched. These aren’t mere investigatory trifles to be enjoyed and forgotten; their unnerving horrors linger.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Nesbo’s pace is unerring, and the way he builds up suspense will incite Pavlovian page-turning.
Time Out New York
The Snowman is strung together with great care, playful in certain stretches, grisly in others, all of it highly readable.
Newsweek
Nesbo explores the darkest criminal minds with grim delight and puts his killers where you least expect to find them.... His novels are maddeningly addictive.
Vanity Fair
This is reading as you experienced it in childhood, without any gap between eye and mind, but with the added pleasures that adult plots and adult characters can bring.... Unputdownable. The Snowman is probably the most terrifying and certainly the most addictive book in the whole series.
Slate
In this chilling installment in Nesbo's Insp. Harry Hole crime series, a snowman left in the front yard of Birte Becker's Oslo house is the only clue to the woman's disappearance.... Nesbo breathes new life into the serial killer subgenre, giving it a Norwegian twist and never losing his laconic hero in the process.
Publishers Weekly
Nesbo is being hailed as the next Stieg Larsson or Henning Mankell.... Apt comparisons, but they don't go far enough. This is simply the best detective novel this reviewer has read in years. —David Clendinning, West Virginia State Univ. Lib., Institute
Library Journal
[A] superb thriller.... Oslo detective Harry Hole returns, world-weary as ever, to puzzle out some very strange, and very discomfiting, events. [T]he story...unfolds at just the right pace. [A]smart, suspenseful cat-and-mouse game...and that's high praise indeed.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The Snowman begins with a disturbing scene set in 1980, more than two decades before the events that follow. How does the opening establish the mood of the rest of the novel? What recurring themes and motifs does it introduce?
2. In what ways does the investigative team—Magnus Skarre, Katrine Bratt, and Bjorn Holm—represent the different viewpoints and skills involved in police work? What do the details about their demeanor and interests (for example, the description of Bratt and the profile of Holm) as well as their reactions to Harry’s presentation of the case convey about their personalities?
3. Rakel, Skarre, and Hagen offer succinct descriptions of Harry and what motivates him. Can Harry’s “anger and the desire for revenge” and his history of alcoholism be attributed to his experiences as a police detective or are they personal flaws?
4. Do you agree with Hagen’s comparison between Harry and military leaders and his assertion that "There’s a strong social urge in man to be needed.... You want this case to be special. You want it so much that you can see the blackest of the black"?
5. What does Harry’s relationship with Rakel and especially with Oleg reveal about him? What personal principles, emotions, and values underlie his attachment to them? What incidents in the investigation also capture this side of him?
6. To what extent do the police rely on standard assumptions about the disappearance or deaths of women in their approach to solving the crimes? Do the circumstances of the individual women—including their relationships with their husbands and children and their reputations within the community—influence the direction of the investigations?
7. The murdered women all had secrets. Discuss the reasons for or explanations of Sylvia Ottersen’s, Eli Kvale’s, and Birte Becker’s lies and deceptions. What does their behavior demonstrate about their sense of power—or lack of power—in their marriages? What moral questions arise in each case?
8. The journalist and TV pundit Arve Stop says, “as a pressman and a liberalist I have principles to consider. The issue here is whether I, as a declared anti-establishment watchdog, should unconditionally make my services available to the ruling power’s forces of law and order” and goes on to say, “I promise to assist in any way I am able.... If you in the force assist us." Does this passage accurately illustrate the relationship between the police and the media? Can you offer real-life examples of cases that indicate cooperation, either blatant or covert, between them? Are there situations in which such collaboration is helpful?
9. During the investigation several people come under suspicion. Are the suspicions in each case supported by credible arguments and evidence? Which suspects seemed to you the most likely to have committed the murders and why?
10. How does Nesbo set the stage for the encounter between Bratt and Avre Stop? What aspects of Bratt’s personality—and of Stop’s—enable her to manipulate the dangerous course of events?
11. What characteristics, good and bad, does Harry share with Rafto? In what ways are their careers similar? How do they compare to other fictional detectives in classic and contemporary literature?
12. What are the major turning points in the investigation? What do the twists in the plot demonstrate about the interplay of routine procedures and intuition in solving the murders? Discuss why Harry attributes his identification of the killer to “a fluke. An atypical fluke” and what this implies about the nature of criminal investigations.
13. What drives the killer’s decision to “leave clear clues, show them the connections, give them the bigger picture”? In what ways do the killer’s actions and motivation conform to your beliefs or knowledge about serial murderers, both fictional and real? Consider such factors as psychological problems caused by childhood traumas; the possession of above-average intelligence; the ability to charm others; and the sense of superiority often associated with such criminals.
14. Harry’s mentor Stale Aune, says, “The more aged I become, the more I tend to the view that evil is evil, mental illness or not. We’re all more or less disposed to evil...we’re all sick with personality disorders. And our actions define how we are." To what extent do the characters in the novel—victims, suspects, and members of the police, including Harry—struggle with “personality disorders”? In your opinion, does some degree of mental illness explain most, if not all, criminal behavior?
15. What techniques does Nesbo use to control the pace and tension of the narrative? Discuss the effect of the flashbacks that interrupt the on-going investigation; Harry’s private moments with Oleg and Rakel; the casual interactions among the police team; and the detailed, graphic accounts of crimes and the discovery of bodies.
16. Do the descriptions of life in Norway—from the weather to the rivalry between the cities Oslo and Bergen, to discussions of crime and other societal problems—enhance the novel? What function do the references to the American elections and culture serve?
17. Jo Nesbo is one of several Scandinavian crime fiction authors who are increasingly popular in this country. In what ways does The Snowman, well as works by Stieg Larsson, Henning Mankell, and Maj Sjowall, differ from American thrillers? What qualities, if any, distinguish Harry and his colleagues from the detectives depicted in American books, television shows, and movies?
The Orchardist
Amanda Coplin, 2012
HarperCollins
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062188502
Summary
At the turn of the twentieth century, in a rural stretch of the Pacific Northwest, a reclusive orchardist, William Talmadge, tends to apples and apricots as if they were loved ones. A gentle man, he's found solace in the sweetness of the fruit he grows and the quiet, beating heart of the land he cultivates.
One day, two teenage girls appear and steal his fruit from the market; they later return to the outskirts of his orchard to see the man who gave them no chase. Feral, scared, and very pregnant, the girls take up on Talmadge's land and indulge in his deep reservoir of compassion. Just as the girls begin to trust him, men arrive in the orchard with guns, and the shattering tragedy that follows will set Talmadge on an irrevocable course not only to save and protect but also to reconcile the ghosts of his own troubled past.
Transcribing America as it once was before railways and roads connected its corners, Amanda Coplin weaves a tapestry of solitary souls who come together in the wake of unspeakable cruelty and misfortune. She writes with breathtaking precision and empathy, and in The Orchardist she crafts an astonishing debut novel about a man who disrupts the lonely harmony of an ordered life when he opens his heart and lets the world in. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Wentachee, Washington, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Oregon; M.F.A.,
University of Minnesota
• Currently—lives in Portland Oregon
Amanda Coplin was born in Wenatchee, Washington. She received her BA from the University of Oregon and MFA from the University of Minnesota. A recipient of residencies from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the Omi International Arts Center at Ledig House in Ghent, New York, she lives in Portland, Oregon. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) The implacable hand of fate, and the efforts of a quiet, reclusive man to reclaim two young sisters from their harrowing past, are the major forces at play in this immensely affecting first novel. In a verdant valley in the Pacific Northwest during the early years of the 20th century, middle-aged Talmadge tends his orchards of plum, apricot, and apples, content with his solitary life and the seasonal changes of the landscape he loves. Two barely pubescent sisters, Jane and Della, both pregnant by an opium-addicted, violent brothel owner from whom they have escaped, touch Talmadge’s otherwise stoic heart, and he shelters and protects them until the arrival of the girls’ pursuers precipitates tragic consequences.... Talmadge turns unlikely hero, ready to sacrifice his freedom to save her. But no miracles occur, as Coplin refuses to sentimentalize. Instead, she demonstrates that courage and compassion can transform unremarkable lives and redeem damaged souls.
Publishers Weekly
Coplin's compelling, well-crafted debut tracks the growing obsession of orchardist William Talmadge, who has lived at the foothills of the Cascade Mountains since the summer of 1857, when he was nine.... His orderly life is altered forever when two runaway girls, Jane and Della, arrive at the edge of his orchard, dirty, starving, and pregnant. A tragedy leaves Talmadge caring for Jane's baby, Angelene.... Verdict: Coplin's lyrical style and forceful storytelling provide many unexpected twists before the poignant conclusion. A breathtaking work from a genuinely accomplished writer. —Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO
Library Journal
Coplin’s mesmerizing debut stands out with its depictions of uniquely Western personalities and a stark, gorgeously realized landscape that will settle deeply into readers’ bones.
Booklist
(Starred review.) Set in early-20th-century Washington State, Coplin's majestic debut follows a makeshift family through two tragic decades.... The novel is so beautifully written, so alive to the magnificence of the land and the intricate mysteries of human nature, that it inspires awe rather than depression. Superb work from an abundantly gifted young writer.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. How would you describe William Talmadge, the title character of The Orchardist? What adjective best describes his character? What are the factors that have shaped the man he is?
2. Though he is mostly alone, Talmadge has two good friends, the herbalist Caroline Middey and the Indian horse catcher Clee, What draws these three people together?
3. When Talmadge first meets the young sisters, Della and Jane, they are stealing his fruit. Why isn't he angry with them? Why does he want to help them? What does he see in them that others might not?
4. Jane told Della that their unborn children were a gift. "'They were blessed, said Jane. "It would be themselves they give birth to, only better. That was why she and Della must work so hard to protect them, their children. In protecting the children, Jane and Della would save themselves." Why does Jane tell Della this?
5. Talk about the sisters and the bond they share. Could most people survive the pain and shame of what they were forced to endure? What propels Jane's definitive act? What stops Della from following her? How do these choices reverberate in the years and events that follow?
6. Explore Della's character. Is she a good person? What drives her restlessness? Why is she driven by revenge? Why can't she find solace with Talmadge and Angelene in the orchard?
7. If he could articulate it, how would Talmadge define his relationship to Della? Do you think he thought of himself as Angelene's father? What about Angelene? Though he adored Angelene, "the emotion—the severity of it—also made him afraid." What was the root of Talmadge's fear? Why can love be simultaneously wondrous and terrifying?
8. Is there anything Talmadge could have—should have—done to keep Della with him and Angelene in the orchard? What hold did Della have on him? Did his concern for Della and his longing for her overshadow his relationship with Angelene?
9. Discuss Angelene and Della. How do they view one another? What kind of person does Angelene grow up to be? How might her life have been different if Della had been present?
10. Could you live as Talmadge did? Do you think he was lonely? Did he enjoy his solitude? What about Caroline, Clee, Della, Angelene? Were they lonely? How is being alone different from being lonely?
11. Talmadge insists that Della should return to the Orchard for Angelene. Caroline questions this. "Do they want each other? Does Angelene even want her, Talmadge?" she asks. He replies. "It doesn't matter what we want. It's blood." How important is blood to family? Are Talmadage, Angelene, and even Caroline a family? Would Talmadge agree with your assessment? What about Angelene and Caroline? What ties individuals together as family? Though they themselves cannot define it, what do each of these characters need from the other—including Della?
12. Late in the novel, Talmadge watches Angelene working in the cabin. "She was the dream of the place that bore her and she did not even know it." Explain what he means.
13. What is the significance of the landscape and the natural world in the novel? How does it relate to and shape the characters and the lives they lead? Can you think of some other books for which landscape is integral to the story? In the century since the novel's setting, we have built over much of our farmland and open spaces. How has this affected us as individuals and as a society? What have we gained? What's been lost?
(Questions issued by publisher.)