Talking to the Dead, Helen Dunsmore
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1cedargrove
The only thing that might make anyone stop is the shortness of the time between the first date and the last. Page 4/5
This was in the beginning, talking about gravestones... and other such things that people need to think about when someone has died. It's a absent rambling, but it makes you wonder just who the author is talking to. Sets the tone for the book. It's never told whose grave she was visiting, but you can imply whose, from the end of the book.
Isabel has a son. Even as I said the words to myself she grew older, more distant, passing through a door that swung shut in my face. P9
I know that feeling and it's a very apt description of the way it does make you feel, when everyone around you is having kids and you are - for whatever reason it might be - left behind.
We say "the baby" as we did before he was born. He has a name, but to me it doesn't sound like a baby's name. He is called Antony. Much later, when it can't possibly sound like a criticism, I'll ask Isabel how they came to choose it." P16
Naming of babies - of anything, it's always a wonder - do we name children for who they are when we have them, or who they will become...? This was the question going through my mind as I read this part.
He'll do his best for the baby because that's the kind of man he is, but he would have preferred to be alone with Isabel. He doesn't mind that there will be no more children. P19
Don't like this man already... but then... that's probably my own experiences colouring things. (However, as the book went along, I came to like Richard just about the best of all the characters, because I think I came to understand him more - the pressures that he was under through the whole of his relationship with Isabel, and how she molded him into what we see at the start of the book.
I was work and safe sex but lots of it and cruising the streets for a late-night pharmacist, and crises and spending too much money and being dissatisfied. What Isabel was took longer to explain. P26
Though it sounds like the person telling the story is being too hard on herself, it actually makes her a far more down to earth character - and realistic - than her sister.
Her face is thinner, but her breasts are round and hard as stones under the thin lawn of her nightdress.P29
The way the author describes Isabel using 'natural' (mother nature) kinds of metaphors is very much at odds with the way the character actually was.
The baby is everything. Everything starts in him and circle back to him, and the rest of us are shadows on the outside of the circle. Me, Richard, Susan. I wonder how Richard feels about it.P53
I couldn't help thinking that Richard felt... helpless and shut out.
There was a point on page 70 where I felt sure that Dunsmore must also be a very good cook, either that or that she did a lot of research, because the descriptions of her main character cooking are all very good - very vivid.
And the drink's abandoning me, leaving vast fatigue like mud in an estuary when the tide's gone out.P 81
Here's another one of those very effective metaphors that Dunsmore uses a lot in the book. Her use of language is one of the reasons I loved this book so much. The other was the mystery and the sense of reality... you can really /be/ a part of these characters' lives.
When both your parents are dead great slabs of the past drop away like eroded cliffs. I want my past back. I need it now to ask it the questions I never realized I needed to ask. But there's nothing. Silence, and the shining of the sea where once there was land. P130
This just struck me very hard, with the truth, even with the poetic quality of it.
I didn't make any more notes, but I literally couldn't put this book down... it is very well worth reading, and now I want someone to adapt it for the screen, or the stage... *runs to check something* Nope, I stand by what I say, I want someone to write the screenplay and get it made.
This was in the beginning, talking about gravestones... and other such things that people need to think about when someone has died. It's a absent rambling, but it makes you wonder just who the author is talking to. Sets the tone for the book. It's never told whose grave she was visiting, but you can imply whose, from the end of the book.
Isabel has a son. Even as I said the words to myself she grew older, more distant, passing through a door that swung shut in my face. P9
I know that feeling and it's a very apt description of the way it does make you feel, when everyone around you is having kids and you are - for whatever reason it might be - left behind.
We say "the baby" as we did before he was born. He has a name, but to me it doesn't sound like a baby's name. He is called Antony. Much later, when it can't possibly sound like a criticism, I'll ask Isabel how they came to choose it." P16
Naming of babies - of anything, it's always a wonder - do we name children for who they are when we have them, or who they will become...? This was the question going through my mind as I read this part.
He'll do his best for the baby because that's the kind of man he is, but he would have preferred to be alone with Isabel. He doesn't mind that there will be no more children. P19
Don't like this man already... but then... that's probably my own experiences colouring things. (However, as the book went along, I came to like Richard just about the best of all the characters, because I think I came to understand him more - the pressures that he was under through the whole of his relationship with Isabel, and how she molded him into what we see at the start of the book.
I was work and safe sex but lots of it and cruising the streets for a late-night pharmacist, and crises and spending too much money and being dissatisfied. What Isabel was took longer to explain. P26
Though it sounds like the person telling the story is being too hard on herself, it actually makes her a far more down to earth character - and realistic - than her sister.
Her face is thinner, but her breasts are round and hard as stones under the thin lawn of her nightdress.P29
The way the author describes Isabel using 'natural' (mother nature) kinds of metaphors is very much at odds with the way the character actually was.
The baby is everything. Everything starts in him and circle back to him, and the rest of us are shadows on the outside of the circle. Me, Richard, Susan. I wonder how Richard feels about it.P53
I couldn't help thinking that Richard felt... helpless and shut out.
There was a point on page 70 where I felt sure that Dunsmore must also be a very good cook, either that or that she did a lot of research, because the descriptions of her main character cooking are all very good - very vivid.
And the drink's abandoning me, leaving vast fatigue like mud in an estuary when the tide's gone out.P 81
Here's another one of those very effective metaphors that Dunsmore uses a lot in the book. Her use of language is one of the reasons I loved this book so much. The other was the mystery and the sense of reality... you can really /be/ a part of these characters' lives.
When both your parents are dead great slabs of the past drop away like eroded cliffs. I want my past back. I need it now to ask it the questions I never realized I needed to ask. But there's nothing. Silence, and the shining of the sea where once there was land. P130
This just struck me very hard, with the truth, even with the poetic quality of it.
I didn't make any more notes, but I literally couldn't put this book down... it is very well worth reading, and now I want someone to adapt it for the screen, or the stage... *runs to check something* Nope, I stand by what I say, I want someone to write the screenplay and get it made.
2cedargrove
Here's my review: http://www.librarything.com/work/171143/reviews/102084034
3mirrani
"Naming of babies - of anything, it's always a wonder - do we name children for who they are when we have them, or who they will become...? This was the question going through my mind as I read this part. "
And here I thought you just found something you liked and that was the name you'd go with because you liked the sound of it. Someone that /hates/ the name Sara isn't going to put that on their baby list no matter how much people tell them their kid looks like a Sara, you know. Names are just names, unless you're going by the tribal traditions where you /earn/ your name or you are called a certain something for a particular purpose. Same with last names. "Smith" used to be ... well.. Smiths.
And here I thought you just found something you liked and that was the name you'd go with because you liked the sound of it. Someone that /hates/ the name Sara isn't going to put that on their baby list no matter how much people tell them their kid looks like a Sara, you know. Names are just names, unless you're going by the tribal traditions where you /earn/ your name or you are called a certain something for a particular purpose. Same with last names. "Smith" used to be ... well.. Smiths.
