#catherbuddyread
Book 2
Lucy comes home, we get a close look at the small town world and the compromised life of Pauline. And then, eventually, thin ice is not simply metaphorical.
Usually I give myself some time between reading and posting, but I only just finished and this hasn‘t processed yet. Thoughts are brewing. What to make of this? Home? Family sacrifices? Going against the grain? Fate? Life - and the forces against it? Your thoughts?
Graywacke @Lcsmcat @CarolynM @batsy @jewright @Louise @Sace @Tamra @Suet624 @arubabookwoman @Currey @catebutler @Catherine_Willoughby @crazeedi @mdm139 @Tanisha_A @emilyhaldi @rubyslippersreads 4y
Graywacke I‘ll add - traces of Alexandra and Emil 4y
Graywacke Photograph is from here : http://www.journeyoflight.com/photo-gallery/ice 4y
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Currey @Graywacke It was not what I was expecting and it certainly was not what I wanted. I wanted Lucy to work through her mixed feelings about Harry, I wanted her to embrace life and I wanted her to find a good life even if it was not about success, or marriage or even love...as Cather said “...to keep on living...” sigh. And Pauline, all that sacrifice for what exactly. She will never forgive herself. Harry will never forget. 4y
TEArificbooks I figured her tale would be sad, but I did not want her to die. I thought she would go home and pine for Harry and Sebastian and teach piano and be a spinster with her sister. I did see the death coming since there were some clues, even in Part 1 there were some clues. I think there was a quote about Life not being measured in years in part 1. 4y
batsy "How often she had run out on a spring morning, into the orchard, down the street, in pursuit of something she could not see, but knew!" 4y
batsy Sorry, accidentally hit send there ?? Was just thinking about that quote in relation to the one earlier in the book, about "something [in the world] that always knew". And the switch turning back on for her after she heard the soprano in the travelling orchestra. I did *not* expect this end for Lucy. It was so quietly devastating. 4y
Graywacke @batsy this is a great quote. I kept wondering what it was about music and that invisible intangible thing that seemed to put life into her. 4y
Lcsmcat @Currey I highlighted that paragraph too. I particularly liked the “Accomplishments are the ornaments of life, they come second.” 4y
Lcsmcat @batsy Devastating is the right word. After her revelation that “what if life itself were the sweetheart?” I hoped Lucy would re-engage with the world and be happy. And now what? There‘s still 25 pages to go. 4y
Lcsmcat Pauline is a bit of a puzzle. How did she and Lucy come from the same parents? And what will Lucy‘s death do to her father, and Pauline‘s relationship with him? She already resents Lucy, and now to compete with a dead sister, on top of the guilt of not telling her about the shift in the river. It doesn‘t look good for her. 4y
batsy @Lcsmcat That quote about life itself as the sweetheart gave me so much hope. I allowed myself to dream with Lucy. I found Pauline so intriguing and frustrating. She understands nothing of Lucy's inner world; jealousy seems like the inevitable reaction, but as someone who helped raise Lucy I expected ... a more perceptive take from her. 4y
Lcsmcat @batsy Yes, I felt like Cather gave us this momentary feeling that everything was going to work out and then pulled the rug out from under us! I think Pauline is as focused on herself as Lucy was and they both missed so much of the other. P expecting L to pay back her family, L not knowing that their Dad is a lousy business man - they seem to dance around each other without either knowing who the other is. 4y
Lcsmcat I don‘t get what Lucy hopes to get from Harry either exactly. Just to be seen? Or is it a Lizzie Bennet réaction of “I can‘t bear to know that he‘s somewhere thinking I‘ll of me.”? 4y
Graywacke @Currey @mdm139 @Lcsmcat @batsy i felt Lucy has a kind of contrast with life. Driven by music and not entirely aware of life‘s other things - the calculating aspect of life. I notice she never explores her own relationship with her musical improvement. Her relationship with her own playing may have an unconscious element. She gets something, and it‘s special (and it‘s more than Auerbach grasps. But Sebastian picks up on it.) 👇👇 4y
Graywacke That needs some elaboration. But to simplify, her relationship with music is natural and unconscious. Her awareness of life is different. She hasn‘t confronted the practical necessities. She doesn‘t and didn‘t get it. She has no idea what she has cost Pauline, for example. (Not that Pauline exactly understands either). So when Pauline confronts her, on top of Gordon‘s cold response - it forces her to confront a lot she hasn‘t let herself be ... 4y
Graywacke aware of. 4y
emilyhaldi To me, the way Lucy was yearning for Harry's attention was beginning to feel like something more than friendship... Maybe she subconsciously had more feelings for him than she would allow herself to recognize? I think if she had gone on living and maturing she may have found that Harry was indeed a good match for her. I happen to think his groundedness and practicality would have been a good balance for her. ✨ 4y
Suet624 @emilyhaldi I think you‘re right that Harry would have been helpful to her. In a week that was already filled with sad things, the end of this chapter did me in. (edited) 4y
CarolynM Another development I was not expecting. Is there symbolism in the water, I wonder? I love all those quotes @Currey @batsy @Lcsmcat For me the saddest thing about Lucy and Pauline was the lack of communication. No-one had explained to Lucy the privileges she was afforded or what it cost them (not just $$) so she was oblivious to it, she never explained her life on Boston, the expectations, the emotional toll, so they were oblivious too.👇 4y
CarolynM 🖕As for Harry, I felt that his behaviour indicated he had truly been hurt by Lucy's rejection. He couldn't risk showing her anything other than his most professional face. I don't think she had any romantic feelings for him @emilyhaldi I think she genuinely wanted to be friends, but was too naive to understand how impossible that was for him. 4y
rubyslippersreads I was completely shocked, especially when it seemed as though Lucy wanted to embrace life again. 4y
rubyslippersreads @emilyhaldi @CarolynM I don‘t know if she had romantic feelings for him (certainly not like the feelings she had for Sebastian), but I think she did start to realize that Harry could have been a good match for her. And with the limited choices women had at that time, she probably could also see that, from a practical standpoint, her life might have been easier if she‘d married him. 4y
rubyslippersreads @CarolynM @Currey @batsy @Lcsmcat @Graywacke l found that whole “parlor cat, kitchen cat” thing very sad. (edited) 4y
Lcsmcat @rubyslippersreads Yes, the kitchen cat, parlor cat comparison was very sad. I felt for both of them. 4y
rubyslippersreads Two other things I noticed. One was “trade last.” My grandma told me about those. You‘d tell another girl you had a “TL” for her and then pass on a compliment you‘d overheard about her. Also, I guess small towns really did have “boys‘ bands.” #troubleinrivercity 😊🎺 4y
Lcsmcat @CarolynM I agree that Lucy didn‘t have romantic feelings for Harry. I think she didn‘t understand why he couldn‘t be friends with her, like they were before. But also, I think she felt the need to set the record straight about her own behavior, now that he was safely married. I need to think more about the water. She and Sebastian both drown, although in different circumstances. But both were held down by something/someone else. 4y
batsy @Graywacke @CarolynM Great point about Lucy not quite realising the costs & emotional toll, on Pauline in particular, for Lucy to have the privileges of her life. She's so young and part of growing up would have maybe been a slow realisation of that. Unfortunately she doesn't get that chance. (I feel like Song of the Lark was also toying with these themes: the artist vs. "ordinary" people and what's sacrificed in order to make a life for oneself.) 4y
batsy @Lcsmcat @emilyhaldi I don't think she had romantic yearnings for Harry as such, but he represented a kind of strength & stability that she desperately needed at that moment in her life. (Literally & metaphorically on thin ice.) Also I think she appreciated his sensibility, "the only who noticed such things", I think she says of him. I agree that Harry perhaps couldn't give her that because he was deeply in love with her & hurt by her rejection. 4y
Graywacke @Currey like you i wanted her to overcome all this. If she could have steadied herself and found a way forward, “embrace life” - she could have become maybe a much stronger person. If only. And also I‘m wondering if Pauline and Harry will be able to deal. 4y
Graywacke @mdm139 A spinster? Maybe actually. What would she have become? I thought she would go back to Chicago and then farther and farther away. but yes, there were hints of this - notably the opening line. 4y
Graywacke @batsy @Lcsmcat devastating. That word. So much was lost. And no clue what book 3 has to say. See how everyone responds, maybe. 4y
Graywacke @Lcsmcat @batsy - just responding to your Pauline comments. It struck me in book one how briefly Pauline was mentioned. A quick line how her mom died and Pauline had raised her and that was about it. That bothered me a lot and i wondered how Pauline herself felt. Now we kind of know and it wasn‘t good. And now she will have a lot of deeply intense conflicting emotions to deal with. 4y
Graywacke @Lcsmcat on Pauline expecting payback - I think mostly she was jealous and felt unappreciated. I thought it was interesting that their dad was lost in phone-chess (like an iPhone chess or something similar today) I wonder if he hadn‘t been drifting, if he had been paying attention, if he would have been able to see where L was headed and been able to redirect her somehow. Just a thought. He listened her play before but not now - maybe it gave ... 4y
Graywacke him a kind of pulse on her. 4y
Graywacke @Lcsmcat @emilyhaldi @Suet624 @CarolynM @rubyslippersreads interesting thoughts on Harry. I wonder at the nature of her pursuit. It wasn‘t for a relationship and maybe it wasn‘t simply love, but it was desperate. Seemed more so than to just clarify herself. She needed something. I wonder if there is a larger theme a play here - something harry maybe represents. 4y
Graywacke On that note, i was wondering what Lucy‘s death may have meant beyond her - for Cather, or end of an era, or of a...like a mindset. Things changed during Cather‘s lifetime in ways she didn‘t like. Maybe lucy represents one of those lost things. ?? 4y
Graywacke @CarolynM @Lcsmcat interesting you both picked up on the water. I hadn‘t thought about it. I think the Platte moving and drowning Lucy down says something about how the American world changed and mowed people like her down. But the parallel with Sebastian taken down in the lake by Mockford is interesting. Need I think more too. 4y
Graywacke @CarolynM Lucy really was oblivious...she had no idea what she cost her father and, more than money, her sister 4y
Graywacke @rubyslippersreads cool about trade last. I could not make sense of that phrase! 4y
Graywacke @batsy song of the lark - artist and others. I thought of Emil who didn‘t appreciate what Alexandra did for him. Interesting to see these themes develop 4y
Graywacke Hope I didn‘t post too much here. Can‘t sleep... 4y
Tanisha_A I finished reading the book a few days back, and I am still processing everything that happened in that part! It was just to sad to witness the end like that. 4y
TEArificbooks I like everyone‘s thoughts on her feelings to Harry. I think he became the “one that got away” and she needed to understand why she let him go in the first place. Kinda “what I was I thinking” “was he really wrong for me”. @Graywacke you mentioned she needed something from him - I think she needed to understand herself and her decisions regarding men. “What was I thinking loving a man I can‘t have when I could have had Harry” 4y
TEArificbooks I think maybe she was also trying to prove to herself she made the right decision rejecting Harry, seeking out a quality in him that would have been a deal breaker anyway. “Well I could have had Harry but glad I chose not too, because ...” She was trying to find to find peace of mind regarding both men so she move forward. And just when she was starting to plan her new life without these men - she is dead. 4y
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