Modern Good Reads discussion

This month we are focusing on two books. The Bone Church: A Novel by Victoria Dougherty, and The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy.

I look forward to a healthy discussion about them both, and seeing what you thought about the characters, conflict, endings.

Here is the description for The Bone Church:
The Bone Church: A Novel
In the surreal and paranoid underworld of wartime Prague, fugitive lovers Felix Andel and Magdalena Ruza make some dubious alliances – with a mysterious Roman Catholic cardinal, a reckless sculptor intent on making a big political statement, and a gypsy with a risky sex life. As one by one their chances for fleeing the country collapse, the two join a plot to assassinate Hitler’s nefarious Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Josef Goebbels. But the assassination attempt goes wildly wrong, propelling the lovers in separate directions.
Felix’s destiny is sealed at the Bone Church, a mystical pilgrimage site on the outskirts of Prague, while Magdalena is thrust even deeper into the bowels of a city that betrayed her and a homeland soon to be swallowed by the Soviets. As they emerge from the shadowy fog of World War II, and stagger into the foul haze of the Cold War, Felix and Magdalena must confront the past, and a dangerous, uncertain future

The book description for The Hunt for Red October:
Here is the runaway bestseller that launched Tom Clancy's phenomenal career. A military thriller so gripping in its action and so convincing in its accuracy that the author was rumored to have been debriefed by the White House. Its theme: the greatest espionage coup in history. Its story: the chase for a top secret Russian missile sub. Lauded by the Washington Post as "breathlessly exciting." The Hunt for Red October remains a masterpiece of military fiction by one of the world's most popular authors, a man whose shockingly realistic scenarios continue to hold us in thrall.Somewhere under the Atlantic, a Soviet sub commander has just made a fateful decision. The Red October is heading west. The Americans want her. The Russians want her back. And the most incredible chase in history is on...The Hunt for Red October

Thanks so much for featuring The Bone Church, guys - hope you like it. Looking forward to your comments :) Until then - splash in the pool, bbq, put your toes in the sand and do whatever you do in the warm weather.

Is anybody else participating in this month's group read of The Bone Church? I'm a little over halfway through and am wondering whether I should finish it. The first third was OK, but ever since the action has shifted to Felix's involvement with the Underground, the quality of the writing has declined. I'm also having trouble with the shifting time frames; just when I think I understand what's happening in 1956, 1944 rears its ugly head again.

I have a ridiculously long TBR list, and the only reason I'm reading this book is because I expected a group discussion. If that's not going to happen, I will probably move on.

Hi Deborah - I would love to get the discussion going. Sometimes the group response is more active than in others. Luckily for us we have the author as part of this group, so we can get answers to all those unanswered pieces and see what she was aiming for.

What has been your favorite part so far? least?

Hi, Deborah - I'm happy to answer your questions (I'm Victoria - the author). First, yes, The Bone Church demands a lot from a reader. My family is from that part of the world, so I have a lot of history with WW2 and the Cold War in my blood :). With the two time frames, I essentially treat both wars as one - which it felt like to many people who lived through the Nazi occupation, then the subsequent Soviet "liberation" which really became an occupation as well. I don't know if that helps.

Victoria, I understand how those who lived through these periods might feel that it was one long era of repression, but it just didn't work for me as a reader. I don't know if you could have conveyed the same idea using a linear framework; maybe not, but I disliked having to keep going back to figure out what this character had done before (or after).

I was also a little frustrated by the skimming over of the years during which Felix became a priest. Given how much he loved Magdalena (and kudos to you on how clearly that came through), why would he give up so easily when he discovered she had married? And surely the thought would have crossed his mind that Ales could be his son, which would give him further encouragement to talk to Magdalena despite her marriage (thereby learning that it was a marriage of convenience and reuniting with her).

I did get confused about what was going on with the Infant of Prague, but that sub-plot finally made sense when I reached the end of the book.

I think my least favorite part of the book was the periodic introduction of magic realism. It made sense to me when the Virgin Mary "talked" to Felix, given his devout Catholic father, but by the time Srut "helped" him escape to West Germany, I just wondered whether he was schizophrenic.

{SPOILER ALERT}
Hi, Deborah - first, thanks so much for your extensive comments in this discussion. It's exchanges like this that make it fun for a writer - whether the novel was a reader's cup of tea or not. It also helps the work come alive outside of the page and that's very satisfying. I feel like I learn something each time.
Hopefully my comments will be interesting for you, too.

I think when it comes to nonlinear stories, it will always work for some and not for others. There's simply no getting around that - and my style is nonlinear. As a human being,I see my own experiences - and of my loved ones - in a nonlinear fashion as well, so that informs the way I write.

As for the more emotional aspects of the book - I'll tell you what was in my head as a writer, but again, I completely respect that my vision for the story simply isn't yours - this is a subjective process and that's what makes it fun, too.

Anyway, here goes: I think most writers have themes that become obsessions or passions or just points of interest. I have a very dramatic family background - political prisoners, backyard firing squads, spies, priests and all manner of good and evil-doer. As a result, I'm deeply interested in how fierce historical winds blow up people's lives - changing their focus, destroying their faith, or reinforcing their faith in unexpected ways. Faith and love are at the core of The Bone Church in equal parts. And as much as I wanted in my heart for Felix to go after Magdalena at the end of the war (the first one), I also knew that after his conversion that would simply not be possible at that time. It would have felt dishonest to me. Both of them had changed - irrevocably. But the subsequent years apart changed them, too, and in a strange way brought them closer together again. That is, to me, part of the mystery of love.

I just finished The Bone Church, and if you're wondering what I thought, here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

To get down to it:

The story has a large cast, and a tricky narrative in that we flow from character to character, and then jump back and forth in time.

Contemporary fiction has us thinking character POV's need to be delineated, but, this has not always been the only method of writing fiction.

Ex: Sherrilyn Kenyon. Her POV's change every other paragraph, with zero indication its happening.

But, in The Bone Church, its the time jumps that can be dizzying at first. Once I was seated into the two different timelines, and the three different plots that were unfolding, two plots in the 'present' of 1956, and one in the past during WWII, then, the time jumps didn't bother me anymore.

The thing that I find fascinating about this sophisticated kind of narrative is how we discover the events of the past that brought us to the events of the present, but we don't know enough to really put it all together until it falls into place with a spiritual kind of synchronicity at the end.

My only real complaint is that I wished for more of a Happily Ever After, but, realistically, I don't think there were very many of those related to WWII and the following Communist takeover of Eastern Europe.

Being 'liberated' by Communists was not exactly a breath of fresh air from German occupation. Its like going from the frying pan to the freezer.

So, I can't fault the ending, even though I was looking for a 'reunited' kind of moment.

Thanks for your comments, Travis, and you're right - I think the time jumps take getting used to. I did, by the way, during one of my drafts, write it as a linear story and it just lost so much. And that wasn't just my opinion, but my editor's, my husband's, and other experienced readers. They all said pretty much what you said about the events of the past bringing us into the events of the present through echos and mirrors, and how that was appropriate for this particular story. But it does demand a lot and I struggled with it. Modern readers are tired readers. We've all got a lot going on.
As for the ending, boy, you should've read the first one (LOL). No hope! Over time, that ending just didn't feel right to me - especially as I spent more and more time in Felix and Magdalena's company. But I just couldn't - given what they'd been through - give them a clean and clear happy ending. I do, however, think that they're not through with each other yet.

Ok, so I can definitely appreciate this novel, however, as Deborah and some of the reviews on the book's GR page mention, it tends to be confusing. The number of characters, the changing names of the characters, and the time jumps where moderately difficult to follow, but for me, the most frustrating moments were when I couldn't tell who was speaking to whom. Looking back, I feel it was the lack of cohesion in the story and clarity in the writing. By the end of the book I was disconnected from the characters and became more focused on wanting to just finish the novel.
What I DID really like about the book was the opportunity to gain more insight into the atmosphere, culture, and experience of wartime Prague. Before reading, I was neither familiar with the Infant of Prague nor the Bone Church. This story, though, has inspired me to learn more about the history of the Czech Republic.

Me, too, Gay. Thanks for the belated, nonlinear comment :)