pickDespite the romanticized atmosphere of the television miniseries, the novel fleshes out the historical elements of a pre-Cold War world. A fresh college grad becomes employed in a government position to fight the 'Red Scare'. Meeting another official, he engages in a long queer affair that brings about themes of McCarthyism, Communism, lavender marriages, class, and gay rights in this literary novel.
bailedThe historical details in this novel were excessive and irrelevant at times, not necessarily driving the plot or characters forward, which, subsequently, had the tendency to pull you out of the narrative. The structure felt disorderly - the prose tedious and dull. The leads, Tim and Hawkins, were lacking psychological and emotional depth, which made their romantic chemistry feel shallow and toxic, and suffocated the poignancy of the setting.
pickBlacklisted actor Paul Robeson summed it up best in a letter he wrote to Charlie: "...fascists everywhere hated you for your anti-Nazi film, The Great Dictator. Well, Hitler and his gang are gone, but Chaplin and his art lives on! And your name will be honored --yes, here in America, too --long after McCarthy and his kind are buried in oblivion.".
Indeed.
It was intrinsically absurd...until Donald Trump.
pickWow! This book is wonderful and heartbreaking and strangely appropriate given the shenanigans going on in the current political climate. This has been in my TBR list for ages but the new Showtime production with Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey bumped it up the list. I can already tell the show is taking liberties to expand the story beyond the book, but I think each are worthwhile in their own right. Excellent portrait of DC during McCarthyism.
Looking forward to #OutstandingOctober readathon! The weather has been fabulous the past 2 weeks in the Inland NW of USA so little time spent reading and little time w/ decent cell or internet. Need to catch up on #Scarathlon for #TeamBOOklovers! Need to read tagged—I‘m sucked in just 10 pages in! Want to finish Don‘t Fear the Reaper, Silver Nitrate and Beware the Woman. Weather is changing, time@for some cozy reading. @Andrew65
so-soI read this a month ago for book club and I keep forgetting to post about it! There were moments in which I connected with this but I felt the most interesting part of the novel was the “lacuna”, the part that was left out.
My least favorite of Kingsolver‘s that I‘ve read and doesn‘t hold a candle to Demon Copperhead. Frieda Kahlo is an interesting secondary character, and I did like the setting but I cannot recommend this one.
bailedI couldn‘t do it @Kshakal 😂 I kept trying to pick it back up, to get at least 35% in before bailing but I just had no interest in forcing myself through that. After doing a quick search online, I saw quite a few people felt this book was missing something and didn‘t feel as bad bailing. It just feels too disjointed and apathetic for me.
