CanLit Challenge discussion

My favourite of the trilogy was What's Bred in the Bone, but I liked this one too. Back among the erudite at U of T with a side trip to Stratford. I don’t know a lot about opera or the theatre (watching is about the extent of my knowledge), but that wasn’t a hindrance. Knowing something about the Arthurian myth was much more important (though, as usual with “ponderous” and “toplofty” Mr Davies, we’re given more than enough background to suffice). I also enjoyed the inclusion of the Tarot reading and the way that all the loose ends from the first two books were cleared up.

***spoilers***
So was Maria the “victim” of a glamour or did she know who was fathering her son? It was a lot like the way Arthur (the King, not the character) was conceived. Poor Arthur (the character, not the King). I had just finished reading Froissart’s Chronicles and he reports that there was a rumour that Richard II was not in fact the son of Arthur, the Black Prince, but that his wife found someone to take that role and presented both Edward and Richard as Arthur’s own. I’m surprised no one brought that up. LOL.

All three books should be read . When you get into Tarot reading and the idea of psychic experiences,and the female characters, the book got a lot more interesting. He is not as comfortable with female characters like Sinclair Lewis.

I notice Davies seems to back off when he can't relate things to other works.He doesn't step out into the unsafe world. My 6th book and finally noticed something about him.

He doesn't go beyond what is already out there. I felt he had a chance in this book. I'm not talking about literary excellence, I talking about a different idea or the unexpected which is so difficult to discover or create. He seemed to be heading somewhere else but decided to tidy up all the loose ends. He went back to Dickens or whoever, and finished the novel in a traditional way.

Have you read Jack Whyte's Camulod Chronicles series? Trys to make a more rational view of the Arthur mythology. My son read lots of that literature and thought the series was well done, particularly up to the point Arthur became king. I think he would have ended it there but the publishers thought they had a good thing going. He lives in Kelowna B.C.. Supporting Can Lit.

I've been reading Camus the last while. Davies is one of the best writer we have/had and his writing is very sophisticated and interesting. Camus, on the other hand can't be compared as a writer but he had something different and thought provoking.

I finally read a small book on literary criticism and I have not read a great number of novels. My comments may be vague because some of them are visceral rather than analytical.