Sean

Idle Book Club Episode 4: Evidence of Things Unseen

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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.

Totally agreed. It's just the best. Opal is such a strong character; she's so respected across the spectrum of the experience (within the book, by the author, by the reader) so that all of her flaws that could easily be tropes just make her a person. So good.

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Just finished the book, and the extended Lightfoot-POV coda really made the book for me. Like you guys mentioned in the 'cast, there were quite a few coincidences there near the end, the wildest of which was Tenner's appearance. It's weird how we'll accept some coincidences and discard others; generally, the earlier and more singular a coincidence, the better it'll sell on the page (or on-screen). This is why Slumdog Millionaire is structured as mostly flashbacks, front-loading the coincidence so that it simply becomes the premise.

Like y'all mentioned, Wiggins uses the TVA really artfully: not in any partisan way, but instead as a really concentrated microcosm for the effects of modernity. She did undersell the benefits, though, and I scanned in my favorite passage that talks about how dams and rural electrification transformed some areas in the 1930s. It's from the first volume of LBJ's biography, which is laced with these kinds of expansive tangents that paint a picture of how the world was. Pretty rad.

Also, you guys should really read Stoner by John Williams! It has a ton of the thoughtful introspection that you all seemed to enjoy in this book and in The Sense of an Ending.

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I've still yet to finish the book, but I enjoyed the cast, which continued the trend of Chris doing impressions of weird accents. I'm assuming Gatsby will be no different.

I agree with Chris on the unconventional execution of dialogue with no quotes at all, because the effect it generates is that the voice of Wiggins as a narrator and the voice of these characters weave in and out like silk. There's this awesome passage on page 85 of the paperback (right after Opal helps him escape from that other chick) where it talks about Flash's infatuation with the idea of Fos and Opal being together, jumps into Flash's head, jumps out and immediately switches to Opal's perspective. The overall flow of the book is remarkable.

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Unlike Sean and Chris, I found that the events starting from Fos and Opal's death really did take me out of the flow of the novel. Like they mentioned on the cast, I couldn't believe Fos would take his own life and abandon Lightfoot, but then I also found a lot of events from that point on seemed too forced for the purpose of making a point (the stuff winknugget pointed out such as Ramona painting in fish hearts etc). It probably bothers me so much because the characters were so interesting and well realized up to that point, with their thoughts and actions expressed so beautifully and elegantly. Then we're left with Lightfoot, who's a little too innocent and naive with Flash, who's a little too wise and eager to dispense his wisdom.

But I don't want to sound like I disliked the novel. The rest of the novel pretty much had me 100%. I was intrigued by the TVA setting and loved following the growth of Fos and especially Opal as characters over their lives and. The both of them coming to terms with their inability to have a child, Fos dealing with what he perceived as a personal betrayal by Flash...I could go on for a while. There's a short chapter called Paternity right after they find Lightfoot where Fos muses on his relationship with his own father that has one of my favorite bits:

But maybe that's what sons and fathers do.

Wait and wish.

Obfuscate and disappear

Good grief that's good stuff.

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Can anybody explain to me why Opal kept in touch with Flash after what he had done and why she told Foster he should go and see him?

It's the only character's action of the book that I couldn't rationalize.

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I guess Opal was able to forgive Flash for what he'd done, because she didn't have as a long of a history with him as Fos did. Fos and Flash knew each other for years, then suddenly Fos is confronted with these horrible things that a man he must consider his brother has done. Opal doesn't have that history, so there's less of a sense of betrayal. She always had a much more realistic way of relating to Flash, and had a much easier time admitting to his faults than Fos did (great example of this is when she confronts Flash over where he got the funding for the photography store). Fos is blinded by his love for Flash, and can't handle the idea of admitting that this man he has known for decades might not be the nicest person. Not only is Fos forced to confront the bad aspects of Flash's character, but he also has to question how he, Fos, could ever become so close to someone who would do such a horrible thing. Opal doesn't have the same issue, which is why she keeps in touch with Flash and encourages Fos to contact him as well; she understands the importance of their friendship and doesn't want Fos to completely abandon it, even if he has every right to hate Flash.

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I also think Opal had a better idea of the kind of person Lally was. She treated Lally more like an adult than a teenager. It's possible that she understood why Flash saw Lally in that light as well, even if she didn't support what he had done.

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It also helps that Opal was the one who instinctively recognised Flash was in love. Misplaced love with horrific consequences, but love that was, at least from his end, genuine. I assumed that from this, she was able to hold on to the idea of Flash as a human being making a human mistake. Fos, on the other hand, only learned all this after the fact. Without that context, his friend's actions must have seemed monstrous.

I'm glad the 'cast covered that nice little detail of Opal continuing to write. I'd largely overlooked it, and just dwelling on it now is enough to bring some of the book's incredible warmth back to the surface. Oh, man. This book.

For those who have read more Marianne Wiggins: which book would you recommend next?

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Haha, I'm halfway through again :)

Took me quite a while but I finally finished it. I just had to realise that I should allow myself to skim the at times achingly dull chapters about The Leviathan and its ecology, naming scheme etc. and enjoy the great writing in the character interactions and lyrical descriptions of the dissolution of Ahab and his crew along with the whales they capture.

I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected going in, and there is just some absolutely transcendent parts in there. The most obvious is of course "to the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee." But there's a lot more stuff in there to love.

Exploring the symbolism and biblical references definitely also added a lot of enjoyment for me.

I have to say that the tie-ins to Evidence are not so obvious. I'd probably have to reread that again to figure out what and where really echoes Moby Dick. But nevertheless, I'm happy that this got me to give that classic my time.

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