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Post by Hermes on Jul 8, 2015 14:02:50 GMT -5
OK: Hermes is Errol. Songbird is Gwen.
Applications for other characters are open.
My point wasn't about eating before swimming; I meant why is she up so early anyway, since it's in vacation and she doesn't need to get up early for swimming? Phil has to get up early to go to Los Angeles, but that needn't affect her.
(Computer, why do you accept Angeles but not Los? In what form of English can you say 'Angeles' without 'Los'?)
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Post by Sixteen on Jul 8, 2015 16:07:01 GMT -5
The narrator appears again at the start of Chapter 5:
"The way out of the rental lot was long, curving past the strange parts of the airport, the warehouses and the private planes, man in a suit - me - looking up hopefully from his cellphone as he waited for his ride. Phil Needle was not it."
As far as I can tell, this is the only reference to the narrator within the story outside of the introduction. I still don't know what to make of it.
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Post by Hermes on Jul 8, 2015 17:18:50 GMT -5
Ah, interesting. That shows it's a man, at least. It probably is Daniel Handler - perhaps he's recalling something he saw one day at the airport.
Notes on Ch. 4:
Have people noticed how unobservant Phil is? He thought Marina was a twelve-year-old boy because she had a new haircut. He doesn't recognise his own assistant when she turns up at his house. He doesn't recognise his baggage at the airport. Etc.
How far is it from San Francisco to Los Angeles? Could it really be done in one day by car?
'Le Bakery, French for "The Bakery"'. Ha!
The revelation that amber was Dr Donner's daughter is quite striking. Was there any way of foreseeing it? Amber joins the class of famous literary daughters of dentists, doubling it so far as I know.
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Post by Songbird on Jul 18, 2015 9:23:27 GMT -5
I think the fact that Amber seemed to feel comfortable messing up a perfectly good waiting room could be seen as foreshadowing in this instance. I mean, unless she is just an incredibly rude child.
I think the Needle family is incredibly unobservant.
Side note: very annoyed at Daniel Handler for constantly bringing up that the Needles identify as being Jewish, without so much as explaining what that means to them or going into any cultural explanations whatsoever. Just seems like he's flinging the word around and inferring that everyone that reads the book knows what it's like to be Jewish. I know what it's like, does anyone else?
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Post by Linda Rhaldeen on Jul 20, 2015 21:17:19 GMT -5
Side note: very annoyed at Daniel Handler for constantly bringing up that the Needles identify as being Jewish, without so much as explaining what that means to them or going into any cultural explanations whatsoever. Just seems like he's flinging the word around and inferring that everyone that reads the book knows what it's like to be Jewish. I know what it's like, does anyone else? Having a character mention offhandedly that they are Jewish without going into any detail is pretty much a staple of Handler writing as Handler, though. He did it in The Basic Eight and Why We Broke Up and with at least one of the characters in Adverbs that I can remember off the top of my head.
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Post by Songbird on Jul 22, 2015 21:58:52 GMT -5
Out of those listed, I only read Why We Broke Up. Anyway, any other thoughts on Part 1? We can start Part 2 when you're ready!
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Post by Songbird on Jul 28, 2015 10:36:11 GMT -5
What did you guys think of Errol? What could be his reasons for writing to the newspaper?
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Post by Hermes on Aug 15, 2015 11:42:51 GMT -5
Since I now have a bit more free time, I would be interested in resuming discussion of this, if people were OK with that.
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Post by BSam on Aug 29, 2015 18:43:53 GMT -5
i now have the book so i may pop in and out of this. no promises
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Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Aug 31, 2015 9:50:12 GMT -5
I'm on chapter 8 and it's great. Amber's mistakes are lovely.
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Post by A comet crashing into Earth on Aug 31, 2015 10:56:22 GMT -5
I read the book some two months ago. It was all right, but I honestly felt a little disappointed. In fact, I think it might be my least favourite Handler novel - although that might be because something's gone over my head, or because I had too high expectations after the long wait. I really don't see the point of what he does with the narrator in this, although that's the element I most suspect myself for missing out on. Actually, I was hoping that there would be a thorough discussion of the book here, so I could watch from the shadows and try to figure out what the book was supposed to mean.
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Post by bandit on Aug 31, 2015 12:37:19 GMT -5
Once again returning to The Author's Road: We Are Pirates is technically an adventure novel, so I guess it could seem overwhelming, but it's really the story of a family, much like Madame Bovary and of course dozens of other classics. In this case though he also borrowed the usage of a disappearing narrator (which I don't think is supposed to have any special "meaning", DH just wanted to first introduce us to Phil Needle from a different perspective).
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Post by Esmé's meme is meh on Sept 11, 2015 17:04:42 GMT -5
I finished reading WAP some days ago. I really really liked the book, I love the relationship between Gwen and Amber (though I was sad that they didn't stay friends ) and Codey's character is really interesting. I'll probably expand on some subjects tomorrow or on Sunday when I have more free time.
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Post by Teleram on Sept 29, 2016 20:07:45 GMT -5
bump
I haven't read WAP in its entirety, but from what I know of it it seems somewhat harmless for an adult novel (not G-rated harmless but at least PG-13 harmless) and considering it was considered by most people here to be appropriate for 13-year-olds... but considering what Bandit said about it earlier I wanted to ask what kind of content is in the book that would deem it appropriate for an older audience?
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Post by Reba on Sept 29, 2016 20:21:47 GMT -5
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