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Idle Book Club Episode 4: Evidence of Things Unseen

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Evidence of Things Unseen

by Marianne Wiggins

Chris and Sean are trasnported to post WWI America with the masterful Marianne Wiggins as their guide. While not without its hiccups, Evidence of Things Unseen is a small story about the incredible and is not to be missed.

For December we read Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins. Written in 2003, the novel was nominated for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and won a Gold Medal in the Commonwealth Club Prize in 2004.

We picked this book because I studied under Marianne Wiggins at USC and while having read another of her novels (John Dollar) I hadn't picked up her most acclaimed work. I'm fifty pages in and it's fantastic.

Buy the book on Amazon

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Don't be! I'm not a huge fan of lyrical realism or whatever the literary name for this style of writing is, but this book was a real joy to read. I am real sucker for anything set in the Appalachian region and Wiggins does not skimp on the descriptions of the Tennessee/North Carolina terrain. It's a quick read, but it's all completely worth it. Plus you can get it for less than $5 from Powell's.

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There's no Kindle version, apologies.

Also, I think this book, in its original publishing, targeted a broader literary audience. I have my suspicions that once it was up for the Pulitzer and NBA Simon and Schuster decided to market it towards a predominantly female crowd and pumping up the poetry and romance. What I'm saying is, while it is definitely poetic and romantic, it's probably not what you think. I'm just 50 pages in and loving it.

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There's no Kindle version, apologies.

Also, I think this book, in its original publishing, targeted a broader literary audience. I have my suspicions that once it was up for the Pulitzer and NBA Simon and Schuster decided to market it towards a predominantly female crowd and pumping up the poetry and romance. What I'm saying is, while it is definitely poetic and romantic, it's probably not what you think. I'm just 50 pages in and loving it.

Literature, generally, is already targeted more towards women than men, especially literature written by women. The cover was surely also chosen before any of the award nominations started happening. I think in general people should simply strive not to be too scared of works that they think might not be completely targeted at them.

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Literature, generally, is already targeted more towards women than men

The way books are marketed is completely fascinating in how ludicrous it is. Any book with even the tiniest hints of a "feminine" plot is immediately rebranded as the hot, new romance story of the year. I had a hard time convincing my BF to read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet, because the back cover's focus on the "love triangle" plot initially turned him off it. Which admittedly, was kind of closed-minded of him, but it's still annoying that books are marketed in this way. As a woman, I'm almost vaguely insulted at the idea that publishers think I'll only read a book if it has a love story in it. I imagine it's the way that men must feel when video games/movies are marketed by how many guns or explosions there are in them. Sexism sucks for everyone.

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Yeah; it's really lame. When it comes to judging a book by it's cover, in terms of Evidence, I was only familiar with the paperback cover -- which depicts two flowers nestling the book's title with a young female figure and a companion out of focus in the background. It's a warm depiction of romance iconography. The blurb on the front says "one of the most originally depicted romances..." or something like that.

Whereas it was incredibly refreshing to receive my used, first edition the hardbound copy in the mail (fourteen cents on amazon!). Big, dynamic font overlaid with swirling electrons and atomic structure over an enigmatic salt flat. It felt much less gendered to me and anchored more in the milieu of the book as opposed to any one specific theme. Maybe I'm re-gendering the cover with my appreciation of it; I don't know, but it is fascinating to me that as a book "goes mass" (ie: a large paperback printing) the marketing of it narrows towards a female audience (in this case, although, Sarah, you and Chris are talking about the industry as a whole).

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The way books are marketed is completely fascinating in how ludicrous it is. Any book with even the tiniest hints of a "feminine" plot is immediately rebranded as the hot, new romance story of the year. I had a hard time convincing my BF to read The Thousand Autumns of Jacob DeZoet, because the back cover's focus on the "love triangle" plot initially turned him off it. Which admittedly, was kind of closed-minded of him, but it's still annoying that books are marketed in this way. As a woman, I'm almost vaguely insulted at the idea that publishers think I'll only read a book if it has a love story in it. I imagine it's the way that men must feel when video games/movies are marketed by how many guns or explosions there are in them. Sexism sucks for everyone.

I suspect they're marketed that way because it works; just like with video games. It's probably having a deleterious long-term effect on the reach of each medium, but I imagine it's hard for publishers to care about that if their experience shows a strong correlation between targeting a particular kind of femininity and seeing higher sales. Economics!

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For folks who remember the minor controversy around Jonathan Franzen getting uninvited from being on Oprah years ago, that was actually directly related to this topic. Franzen was concerned about how publishers of literature seemed to be giving up on male audiences, or at least valuing them considerably less, and (in a separate interview) expressed his mixed feelings about whether his book being part of Oprah's Book Club would only intensify that perception and/or reality. When that interview was published, his Oprah invitation was revoked.

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I thought a lot of Franzen's unease had to do with how the show was planning on "framing" his novel, most significantly that they wanted to put a larger emphasis on the recent death of Franzen's father than what Franzen was actually comfortable with. I suppose that is in line with the concern over which audience the book was trying to be marketed towards (they assumed that women are more interested in stories that deal with family relationships and emotions).

I remember there being a big media storm when Franzen eventually did end up on Oprah's show to promote his book Freedom, but I don't recall how exactly the book was being marketed to Oprah's audience, or if it suffered the same fate The Corrections almost did. I do remember when Anna Karenina was selected for the Oprah book club, because the reframing of the novel as some kind of tragic but enviable romance story was rage inducing.

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First, a quick word of warning: at least one paperback edition outlines about 80% of the broader story on its back cover. While the beauty is in the delivery and context, you'll be better off if you can resist the temptation. With that out of the way:

Wow.

I'm currently in that euphoric, post-ending daze; personal proof, if an were needed, that this really is a wonderful piece of writing.

For all the modern literary flourishes, this is very much a "classical" story. I can imagine another version of this as a contemporary mid-1900s film, saturated with bittersweet strings. Stories like that are usually larger than life. While there were aspects of this (like the abundance of mutual love at first sight and narrative coincidence, which felt out of place in an otherwise realistic setting), some of the best moments were more mundane.

I was really impressed by how ordinary these people's lives were the further we got in. Two average (but far from unremarkable) human beings sharing a normal (but far from wasted) existence. The everyday attraction between them was powerfully written. It didn't need grand, sweeping gestures, but tiny moments. I'm going to trade in my man cards right now and admit I got caught up in it, putting down the book on no less than three occasions to run to my wife and tell her I loved her.

The biggest advantage of the stream-of-consciousness writing style was its ability to jump to new places and years mid-sentence. And so, when Fos looks around and wonders "where have these years gone?", it really rings true.

There are broader story aspects that can and should be nitpicked, but not now. Not while I'm still in the aforementioned euphoric, post-ending daze. It's not a perfect novel, but the simple fact is that even now, one hour after finishing, the final pages are still lingering. That's really quite something.

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I was really impressed by how ordinary these people's lives were the further we got in. Two average (but far from unremarkable) human beings sharing a normal (but far from wasted) existence. The everyday attraction between them was powerfully written. It didn't need grand, sweeping gestures, but tiny moments. I'm going to trade in my man cards right now and admit I got caught up in it, putting down the book on no less than three occasions to run to my wife and tell her I loved her.

It's funny that I was just railing against the gendered marketing that books often receive with the overemphasis on female readership, because I definitely cried for the entirety of the last 50 pages of this book. Usually I get mad when an author is obviously trying to manipulate you emotionally, but I think all the "oh my god" moments at the end of the book are really earned. Opal and Fos may not have the most realistic relationship in the world, but I still enjoyed following their story.

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This book just floored me. The beauty of the language, the exquisite humanity of the main characters, the fascinating setting, the theme of light and allusions to Moby Dick... this is probably my favourite book in at least a year of reading if not five.

It even got me to pick up Moby Dick again after finishing the Great Gatsby.

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Had to register on the forums just so I could write about this book (don't get me wrong I've been following idle thumbs since the start and even read the forums every now and then, but I am not the kind of person that usually cares to share their opinions).

I had a pretty similar initial reaction to it as some of you. I definitely judged the book by its flowery cover, but it only took a couple pages and I was hooked by the language.

Never really thought of my self as very emotionally available, recognising my self in Fos Junior; the way he talked about hiding your emotions as they show what you care about. But as much as it pains me to admit, this book had me crying. I also had the same urge Alastair mentioned of having to tell my partner that I loved her, the only person in my life that is allowed to see me care (as well as you guys now, but anonymity is a wonderful thing).

The old me would have scoffed at the mutual love at first sight theme of the narrative, but having lived through it (and having permanently moved countries just to be with the person I loved), I could not do anything but recognise my self and reflect. I have always been highly self reflective, but this book shined a light on matters from such angle that it just illuminated thing I have never noticed before, giving a framework to work with. Fucking hell, I can't even escape the metaphor of the light in my own thought process, I did not mean that last sentence to come out that way.

I think part of the reason I had such a strong reaction to this book, is also because I haven't really read that many "proper" books, having recently very consciously ditched all sci-fi, fantasy and crime-shite in favour of books of substance, so when Opal (or was it Flash) was saying that the only reason people read books is to learn about themselves I was just nodding my head vigorously. This is also exactly why I'm following this book cast, so I'm sorry if I don't have the most interesting things to say or if I sometimes don't grasp the subtlety of the themes, but I'm new to this,

When the story in the book switched to be from the point of view lightfoot, I initially didn't understand the need for it, thought that the story was pretty much complete, but the last chapters ended up being my favourites. I especially like flash's "life lessons", the fact that the past does not determine who you are and that it is up to you're future. I was also left with a feeling of having to live my own life, not quite sure what I mean by this, but just the way Ramona talked and thought about her mother. Her mother had this story and Ramona did not have any claim to it, she could respect it, but was not her's to make her own or make it suit her own version of life. This in contrast to the way Tony in the Sense of an Ending creates his own history by strategically leaving parts of his past untold, and how I sometime have a tendency to view other peoples interaction within the story that is my-life, i.e. that other peoples life stories can be altered to fit this narcissistic bio-graph where I am the centre. Not quite sure what I'm getting at, but I liked the feeling it gave me of thinking about my parents life stories as these standalone, independent things, that I should try and understand and respect, but ultimately have no bearing on me and I should leave them unmodified.

The book also really made me want to read Moby Dick.

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For a novel centered around a theme of:

"Which taught her early on a thing or two about the power of whats visible - it derives its mystery from what it hides." (pg.174)

I didn't get the sense that it left much of anything unsaid. It was a beautiful story of three lives, with much beautiful writing, but a week out from finishing it I can't say it sunk many barbs.

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This is also exactly why I'm following this book cast, so I'm sorry if I don't have the most interesting things to say or if I sometimes don't grasp the subtlety of the themes, but I'm new to this,

Rest assured a reaction as intense and personal as yours is one of the most interesting and welcome things anyone can say in response to a book.

Has anyone followed through so far with the desire to read Moby Dick? To be completely honest, the length daunts me, but I'm willing and eager to be convinced it's worth it.

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I am about a 120 pages in and so far I am liking the book alot more that I expected. I set a goal of 20 pages a day but so far I find myself reading more than that from a combination of longish chapters where I keep wanting to spend time with Opal and Fos, they seem to fit perfectly together.

"She'd been careful not disturb his artless clutter but she'd somehow managed to arrange herself and her belongings into balance with his half of the bargain. Its still felt like he lived there but she'd filled in blanks and blurred the edges with her modest frills"

I also liked Opal's thoughts on the river (where they are living) and the ocean (where they began and always go back to)

"The ocean, like the sky, was something man could never harness, never dam."

"Unlike the rebel ocean, it's mankind's natural servant".

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I have a lot of things about this book swirling in my brain at the moment, as I'm in the "euphoric, post-ending daze." I want to share a few while they're fresh. SPOILERS, etc.

This book is beautiful. It's beautifully written and the high points fill your heart with hope and joy Glory which make the low points so much more of a punch in the gut. I love the poetic musings that move tangentially from the main plot for a moment just to let you bask in the inherent splendor of minutia. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried on the last 2 pages of the Fishin' chapter, either. Any author that can involve you this emotionally in their characters deserves to be commended.

That being said, it's not a particularly clever plot, or it's too clever to be believable. There is some super obvious foreshadowing with Fos's radiation deathtrap carnival sideshow. I thought we would at least find out he sterilized Opal and that was the reason they can't have a baby, but giving her leukemia was equally foreseeable The final chapter really shoehorns in too many references to earlier moments that we probably could have done without. I didn't need Mr Scrimshaw to show up or for Ramona to be painting in phosphorescent fish hearts at the moment Lightfoot meets her. Flash's character is compelling to listen to since he is the great philosopher and poet of the novel, but what he ends up being is a kind of soapbox for profundity that feels a bit forced.

The setting of the book is almost a cheat for creating gravity. Spanning 2 world wars, the great depression, prohibition, the creation of the atomic bomb. This is one of the most densely packed eras of culturally defining moments in american history. What stands out among these huge moments in the book are often the small moments, though.

The thing is, I don't mind. I was willing to suspend my disbelief when necessary because this is a really great read. I let myself be inundated with the beauty of the language and imagery and happily let the rest go, happily let my heart be broken.

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I finished it last week-end, and once again, it's a very interesting read.

What I appreciated most about the book is its extreme sensibility, in the sense that I think it manages to capture feelings and emotional states that are very subtle, transient and ephemeral; in a very genuine way.

It might sound exaggerated or nonsensical, but some passages seemed so fragile and brittle, that I felt clumsy and uneasy reading them, like I would break the text if I wasn't cautious enough. This is mostly true during Opal and Fos first encounter and every time the book explored Opal reflection of aging and her understanding of Fos' personality.

The second most interesting aspect of the book is its exploration of the damage done by the inability of people to understand their own limitations - the main application of that theme being Foster as a flawed scientist.

Back in my grand-parents day - and maybe still today - quite a few people became Catholics because they stumbled upon holy cards and were struck by their beauty or symbolism. They didn't really understand what religion was about but they wanted to be part of something that could produce these images, this kind of feeling, this 'grace' like a great-aunt of mine once said.

It seems to me that Foster is fascinated by science for very similar reasons: his naive, full of wonder approach leads him to embrace science as a whole, without questioning it. It is endearing at first, but his blind faith ultimately prevents him from seeing the danger of his naive take on science and from 'getting' what I think is the true value of science is; i.e. its method.

Other episodes in the book, like the couple's attempt at being farmers, Opal's attempt at mitigating Flash irresponsibility and Fos' ridiculously light efforts at securing Lightfoot's future, are in a similar vein and depict very tragic, interesting and sometimes pathetic trajectories.

To me, the unique craft of Wiggins is to paint these trajectories from the exact distance where empathy, criticism and reader's post-hoc knowledge can coexist; and it's brilliant.

The book is not perfect though.

For instance, Lightfoot's part doesn't connect with the rest as naturally as it should: I like the idea of adopting the point of view of a character that knows less than us - we've been reading a lifetime of stories about his parents, we understand things that he'll probably never get because the evidence of the events that lead to this understanding have disappeared - but there's a huge amount of shoehorning and overall, it fails to live up to the most delicate part of what came before.

I also do not understand why the author made Opal continue writing to Flash after what he had done and made her suggest to Foster to go and see him. That was reaaallly left field.

But, yep, overall, thanks Idle Book Club: it was worth it :tup:

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Oh, and I also love the ellipse during dialog; when it jumps to a moment when a character either remembers or evokes the bit of dialog that came before. It's awesome.

Also, the episode has been posted, but I can't download it; when i Right click Save-As. it loads forever.

I tried changing the filename to match today's date, but that gives me a 404.

Anybody has that issue?

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I was glad that Sean/Chris mentioned how evenly Wiggins writes her female and male characters in this novel, because it's something that I've been thinking about a lot since I finished reading it. Wiggins really does write convincing male characters, but I think where she really excels is with her female characters; her portrayal of Opal was just so brutally realistic. Of all the authors that have been featured so far on this cast, Wiggins by far has written the best female characters. Opal's inner regret and shame over her inability to conceive was so painful and, for me at least, so relatable. In a lesser writer, I think the 'infertile woman who wants children' trope would have driven the book too far into cliche, but Wiggins manages to deftly describe a very real fear without delving too much into melodrama. That section that Chris read from the book, where Opal thinks how she is good at counting and other women are good at having children, just drove home how perfect a character Opal is.

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