Reading the Chunksters discussion

Ok, here we go...Week 1 Chapters 1-4 discussion goes here.

I'm really excited to read this one. A good friend recommended it to me over a year ago and it has been sitting on my shelf ever since. I'm so happy to have you guys to read it with.

I have to admit I found the start of this a tad bit confusing and left me feeling almost disoriented the story seemed to jump around so much. I finally figured out that there are at least six stories going on here in multiple time frames. I like books like that I just found the switches somewhat abrupt at first. What did you guys think?

I think we are going to get to meet a long list of characters. So far my favorite parts were about Eleazard and the parts about Moema and Thais. I couldn't decide if I found the restaurant scene funny or disturbing but I would have liked to see it. Have you ever done anything totally crazy in a fancy restaurant like that?

I'm hoping the stories start to come together more in the next week's reading. I don't really feel like I even understand some of them yet. I'm going to go back and reread some of this weeks and I'll post some more then but now this is all I've got. Looking forward to seeing what everyone else thinks so far.

I haven't finished the whole thing, although I should be able to today, but I just passed the drug injection part and I'm torn between throwing up and fainting.

I agree that it's confusing. I would actually say that it's quite confusing. It's a particularly complex book that needs more than a hundred pages to get all of it's characters in place.

I have no idea how many stories there were because I seemed to lose track midway through. The addition of Ze and Nelson at the end was a bit too much. A notebook would probably be helpful with this one. The different time frames were confusing too. When Ze mentioned something about the plague, I'm like "Oh, yeah. There was a round of plague in England in 1603." Which basically made no sense. And then I realized Ze had driven up in a pickup. Just a tad confused. :)

My first reaction was a bit of confusion over the writing itself. It didn't feel very literary and it had an odd rhythm to it. After a bit I realized that it must be a translation. It looks like it was originally published in French. I'm thinking the translation went a bit more with word for word than with capturing the essence of the story while keeping the beauty.

I struggled with Moema and Thais. I really didn't like either of them and I didn't like Moema's attitude toward her father. It was a damned if you do damned if you don't thing for Eleazard. He doesn't know about her drug problem, right? I've never done anything like that in a fancy restaurant, although I can see the fun. I would be angry if I was one of the other patrons though. And then afterwards there's no money for the bar. I mean, I knew she wouldn't open the bar but she blew all of that money in something like two days!

I'm also interested in where it's going next week. I really want all of these threads to at least start to make sense. I think I should dig up a notebook.

Oh! What was up with Eleazard's notebook? It had bits of info about characters he hadn't met. I was completely baffled.

I'm glad I wasn't the only confused one. Some of the sections were so confusing I wasn't even really sure what to say. I think your notebook idea is a good one. Im going to dig one out tomorrow and go back over some of the sections. I have a feeling if I don't get some of the characters straight in my head it's really going to make for a difficult read.

Yeah, I agree. I'm glad I have this on Kindle so I can just search for the first time they're mentioned. I'm kind of surprised that I'm this confused after 106 pages.

I'm still somewhere in the middle of this section, and so far I liked Eleazard's part the most. I hope he takes interest in what Moema is doing, and soon. The drug injection part was horrifying in terms that the girls could so easily die of overdose etc. So silly! I'm also fond of Heidegger, Elezard's parrot. When I first read the description of Alcantara, the city where Eleazard lives, I thought the action took place sometime in the mid XX century, everything so deserted and falling into ruin. Who would choose to live in such a place? I also have no idea where Ze and Nelson fit into the story.

I was most surprised by the chapters about Athanasius Kircher. Firstly, I don't know about you, but I had no idea that such a scholar existed, and from the quality of the 'biography' I thought he was a fictional character. But then I checked wikipedia and it seems he was a very prominent scholar and also that the description in the book follows the facts of his life very closely . Here are facts about Kircher's life. . What did you think about the biography's style? To me it appeared very crude and also a bit.. ironic? I don't know how to describe it, I probably have to finish reading this part to comment more on it.

Sarah I think this is probably a good one for the kindle. I have a friends hardback copy but I think I may get it for my kindle.

I didn't know anything about Kircher either. Thanks for that link.

I'm reading it on a kindle too. A lot easier to handle the many plots in the book.

Teanka, thank you for posting that information! I had no idea he actually existed at some point. I'm of two minds on that. First, I dislike it when people create a character and put him/her into an historical context doing things that would have had a huge impact on history. On the other hand, I really don't like it when people write fiction about real people. In this case, neither choice would make me entirely happy. I am glad to know he was real, though. His study and "translation" of the hieroglyphs takes on a new light.

Hi all, I just realized that week 2 was posted and I never commented on week 1! Time is slipping away from me lately...

Anyways, the multiple story lines means that I have very little idea what is going on and what the point is going to be at the end of it, but I'm not super confused yet. I think I have read too many weird stories with multiple timelines and millions of characters lately (*cough* IJ *cough*) to let that bother me right now. I'm just sort of letting it all wash over me.

Otherwise, i am pretty neutral so far. I also have the kindle edition, though, and I am impressed by how fast this reading is going. 100 pages flew by, and the kindle is estimating that I am going to read this shockingly fast. Does anyone with a paper book think that the pages are short or small?

I have the hardback. The margins are huge so I think the page count is deceiving.

Amanda wrote: "I have the hardback. The margins are huge so I think the page count is deceiving."

That must be it! 100 pages is usually not an hour of reading for me, so I was pretty surprised at how quickly I reached the week's allotment!
Thanks!

I'm not reading this fast, I think it took me about 3 hours but I was also taking notes. And then I'm still reading faster in Polish than in English.

I have to say that what surprised me the most was that I was expecting that Kirchner's plot would take place in Brazil during the colonization period, and then I thought that the other part would be about his French biographer who maybe would eventually travel to Brazil. And what we got so far (I'm in the middle of the next section) is a lot of action taking place in contemporary Brazil with many protagonists and a European Jesuit story during the 30 year war in Europe back in the XVII century.

Teanka, that's a good point. I wonder why the author wanted the book set in Brazil?

Sarah wrote: "Teanka, that's a good point. I wonder why the author wanted the book set in Brazil?"

I don't have an answer for that, except that the contemporary part of the story is very firmly placed in Brazil. What I mean is that it couldn't take place anywhere else, especially the Elaine part (geological/ archaeological fossils in Mato Grosso), the Governor's (a hacienda), or the description of the favelas (Ze and Nelson part). I believe there might be a connection through some Kircher's studies too (he studied everything, right?) though I don't think he ever set foot on the New World soil.

I'm more concerned with why did Eleazard ( and the author, too) pick Athanasius Kircher as his subject of study? There are even biographies and collections of essays on the man, such as Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything .