Jeremy’s Comments (group member since Jan 22, 2020)

Jeremy’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

Hi,
I also enjoyed how all the threads came together, although the very end was so sudden it left me wondering if a page was ripped out my book. It was a clever touch to make the seeming resistance the unexpected “villain”, and the real resistance was the man who preached against it, so was that a front?

Also, I’m not sure if Konig had feelings for Susanna or was not interested? That point was left ambivalent to me.

Also, I felt like there was a reason for Torma’s relationship that I missed. Was she Jewish? I’ve been very busy, but it’s another reason I would like to read Katalin Street and get a more mature perspective from the author.

Thanks to everyone for their kindness and insights. This is a book that doesn’t deserve obscurity!

Wonderful commentary on the exploration of female relationships, Erin. I think too young of a reader might miss some of this.

I’m surprised no one has read Katalin Street yet. It’s another Len Rix translation. I think I’ll be queuing it up!

Wow Sandra, congrats on the successful parenting! Singapore sounds like a great place to teach virtually:)

Jan, love the brilliant insights, and that quote about her father was great! Your paragraph about Gina reminded me of the sermon about the rose with thorns, so maybe that is a good symbol of her...
Hope your zooming goes well. If I could only make those mandatory....

Ken- Take that Hitler! Your comment made me laugh.
Virtual school: I agree with you, although there has been no decision in our high schools. Even if they open, it will only take a few infected souls to bring it all down again (pre-vaccine). But virtual schooling is flawed. I have a group of college students all on academic probation right now, so they’re already down on themselves and the system probably, and it’s hard to create an authentic relationship that they can trust or buy into. It’s so much easier to just let go...

Finally caught up after designing virtual curriculum for a summer online course that has no textbook. Fun!

So Gina is quickly coming of age, her father practically demanding it... The air raid worked for me. The girls behavior was already at a tipping point. I wonder if Kalmar will stay true to Gina’s St. George archetype.

My favorite section was the country outing. They sing to the young men heading out to war, “thinking of the grand order of nature to which mankind had been subject since the dawn of time. (foreshadowing?). Later this section was ripe with romantic tension, before the heart stopping second two characters seem on the brink of destruction, and then the resulting emotions that pour from that episode. I’m now more interested to see what Susanna will do with so many looking on at her. It’s interesting how observant young men and women can be.

The satire scandal and the hymn debacle were less interesting to me. Here’s to a finale that ties up all these threads in an artful way!

Okay, so Goodreads needs an upgrade to allow us to reply to one another properly without a long clunky roll. I’m sure their engineers could handle that...

I’m glad mostly everyone is finding empathy with Gina and that she is having adult thoughts, and I believe this to be the function of this novel. If this is YA, then is Great Expectations YA? It’s closer to Austen or Dickens than The Hate U Give...

And I enjoyed the comparison to Cat’s Eye, Candi: Both coming-of-age, but very different in style.

Carol wrote: "But oh if they only knew the price of human suffering"
You made me laugh about the slimy toad and pulled the heartstrings on that last sentence. Bravo, Carol!

More sleuthed fun facts:

-Although the Girls School is supposedly set in Arkod, "the oldest university city in eastern Hungary" sounds like Debrecen, Hungary. In fact, Magda Szabo was born there and taught at a Protestant Girls Boarding School in Debrecen (hmmm-). Her memorial museum is also in Debrecen at a school she attended as a child: https://www.inyourpocket.com/Debrecen...#

-Abigail has been turned into a musical and TV series and is her most beloved novel in the country.

I was dreading the coming-of-age formula than the YA one, but after page one nothing about the novel was ringing my 'formulaic' alarms, and I settled in nicely:

The details about the character of the French governess Marcelle, who loved Gina like a daughter, and even taught her a symbolic "mother tongue", before she is whisked away as though she never existed, intrigued me. This character and style of the novel reminded me of Flaubert ('le mot juste'-the right word), not too showy or obsessive, and the the knowledge that Hungary (and especially its large Jewish population--see Fateless by Imre Kertesz) faced catastrophic forces.

I felt Gina's character to be authentic since she came from a life of privilege, and I'm also glad she does a few things to be not necessarily likable. Her comments to Szabo are reprehensible, but have I had similar thoughts and emotions? Sure. This is also helping it stay away from the 'formulaic'. Also, the relationship with her father was peculiar and interesting with so much repressed(?) emotion that when the car horn goes off in a beautifully written sequence(pg. 33-34), I was touched.

Later, the mysteries of the statue and the backgrounds teaching staff kept me intrigued. I wanted to know more about Susanna and the K's (Kalmar and Konig). I made a personal teaching connection to Konig, that when he applied a lighter touch or leash in his teaching style than the other strict staff, the girls saw it as a weakness rather than appreciating it. That's a lesson I've learned the hard way.

The last thing: I couldn't but help to compare the message on the Sorrows of Hungary statue to the protest in America: the voices of dissent.

Thanks for the welcome! Ken, you’re right; I’m always learning (or remembering what I forgot)as a teacher, and always trying to improve, looking for another great text to share. So I wouldn’t be surprised Jan if something comes up. Carol, I’m excited now! I also fell into a reading funk, but I’m back to 3 books at a time:) I did enjoy The Door, so I have faith in Szabo, but not this clunky iPad....

Hi, everyone, I’m Jeremy Dunn, and I’m in Mansfield, TX, as part of the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metro-sprawl. (I’d love a more scenic clime, but the warm weather and job market keeps me here.) I teach English at an Early College HS here where they graduate with an associates degree from college before they get their high school diploma, and I also teach Composition at Dallas Community College. I’ve lived all over Texas (west, east, central—went to UT) and NYC for a while. I play husband, dad to two kids, so warrior trainer, judge, referee, and a kaleidoscope of other fun roles at our passion play here...I love good writing and variety in general, but my tastes are pretty eclectic, and I will abandon a book after 100 pages if the date is not going well (not book club books) because my ‘to read’ list is lengthy and not getting much shorter....