CanLit Challenge discussion

Another Canadian book I'd never heard of, but apparently it got made into a popular movie. Anyone else read it or planning to read it with me?
Brian Moore

Have you already started it? It's on my list, and I'm nearing the end of my Orange Prize reading, but I'm not quite 'there' yet...

Buried In Print wrote: "Have you already started it? It's on my list, and I'm nearing the end of my Orange Prize reading, but I'm not quite 'there' yet..."

I haven't quite got there yet either. I've still got about half of Literary Lapses left to read, but I should be starting on it in the next week or so.

You ready? I started it today. So far (about a dozen pages in) we've got a man verging on 40 who's dragged his wife and daughter from Ireland to Canada & is now unemployed and out of money. I'm turning 40 this week. So am I going along with Ginger on his midlife crisis or am I going to empathise with his wife who has to put up with this loser and has fewer options than even he does since she's got the wrong body parts?

I'm a hundred pages in. I'm not sure if it was Moore's intention or whether Ginger is supposed to come off as somewhat sympathetic, but to me he's the embodiment of the covert (that's not quite the right word) misogyny in the culture of the 20th century version of the patriarchy (which of course we still haven't managed to completely slough off). I mean he literally tells his daughter to go make him a sammich. (view spoiler)[He calls his wife a whore and blames her for leaving him when he's lied to her about everything and, when he's not treating her like a child, treats her like a servant or even a sex slave. Once she's left he calls it "the height of freedom" to tell (imagined) women just begging for sex from him to go to hell. And then he dreams that another woman would get all teary-eyed and call him a saint because *he* gave up his wife and daughter when *they* left him... Blech. (hide spoiler)]

I'm only 40 pages in, but I completely understand your response to Ginger. At this point, my sympathies are definitely with Veronica.

I haven't read your spoiler up there yet, but I will as I move along. Have yet to decide whether I should push straight through, or spread Ginger across several reading days.

It might dilute his Ginger-ness, to have other less irritating characters from other books alongside to take the sting out. (It took me awhile to get past the breakfast scene: make your own egg!)

Buried In Print wrote: "Have yet to decide whether I should push straight through, or spread Ginger across several reading days...."

I'm spreading it out. It's my current "poolside" book, but yesterday my aunts were over so there was discussion rather than reading, and today it's cold, so no break by the pool. Maybe I'll read it this evening.

Though Ginger is a sexist jerk, Brian Moore's writing is pleasurable in itself, so that makes the reading quick and easy.

I forgot to share my final thoughts on the book here:

(view spoiler)[Ginger Coffey is, to put it bluntly, a misogynist jerk. But the thing is, he really has no clue. Everything is about him and his inability to succeed the way he wants to. His wife and daughter are adjuncts, just reflections of his failure. They are not people with their own lives and needs, they are there to serve him sandwiches, make him eggs, and (in the case of his wife) open her legs for his pleasure. I was disappointed by the ending, the fact that she surrendered and went back to the drudgery just because the guy who was going to sweep her up was a bit of a jerk himself. This book just illustrates how truly awful women's lives were in the so-called "golden age" of the 50's. I liked the wintry Montreal setting as seen through the eyes of an immigrant. I'm sure we'll see more of that in future books. (hide spoiler)]

I got stuck in this book for a good long while because I found Ginger so frustrating (and familiar, though, thankfully, not too too familiar, more in an "I've heard this tale before" kind of familiar).

But, when I finally sat back down with it, I pushed onward and found myself surprisingly involved with the story rather quickly. What made it work for me were the instances of Ginger's weakness, his fears and insecurities rushing forth; it made him a credible and (as the story went on) sympathetic character.

After the first fifty pages, I was wondering what was all the fuss about Brian Moore's fiction, but now I would definitely read more of his work.