Maureen McGranaghan

Hard to say how Flaubert feels... He seems detached from her. The narrative voice is interesting. The book begins with a collective first person when Charles is at school, but then this "we" drops away, and we have the omniscient narrator.

She has been very sheltered and certainly feels things deeply. But I don't see much in the way of inner resources. I guess that's what troubles me reading it this time--partly because I know how things turn out.

Murtlock does seem sinister (and not that original). I'm not a fan.

I've read Madame Bovary twice before, so I find myself full of reflection this time. Is Emma's nature merely shallow, or worse? Shallowness married to yearning? I am in favor of books and daydreams, but they seem to have spoiled her. She is affronted by life and cannot flourish. #Flauberttogether

The stirring/blossoming of Emma and Leon’s infatuation reminds me of Edna Pontellier and Robert Lebrun’s interaction in the early chapters of The Awakening. In both cases, the writing is exquisite, the unconsummated affair languid and beguiling. #Flauberttogether

Who wields power over mammals and crustaceans... But run-of-the-mill is right, for all we've encountered. Trelawney, Erdleigh, Pamela, Gwinnett, Erridge... This series sets a high bar for eccentricity--not to mention names.

"Murdock's rather run-of-the-mill outlandishness certainly comprised something perceptibly priestly about it...There was an essentially unsacerdotal side, one that suggested behavior dubious, if not actively criminal." Scorpio Murdock #anthonypowelltogether

That's cleverly put. Then G's off to teach waterskiing in the Mediterranean! (While he complete's X's biography?) I mean you can't beat these books for their odd twists. Dude ranches and the like. 🤣

Wow, thanks for sharing. Yes re: Gwinnett as necrophiliac (according to Svec). And Corey Simpson's piece suggests this was why Pamela "sacrificed" herself. Yikes. I didn't quite put all that together (and it strains credulity somewhat). In any case: 😱 indeed!

Necrophilia came up, but I can't remember the context...

I discovered Stevenson's readings with an audiobook of To the Lighthouse and am now excited whenever I see her name. I love Middlemarch, so I'll have to listen to her do that sometime!

Even funnier given Moreland's imitation of his "lugubrious" voice. Love how he calls the cottage a "gem of a place that brought a lump to the throat by its charm." Imagine the ruthless, perverse industrialist saying that. 🤣

If only Moreland could get such a miracle.

Such a strange and morbidly funny story of Donners getting a mistakenly dire diagnosis, renting a cottage, and setting out to consume Europe's classics on his death bed. Only to recover and go right back to being Donners. #anthonypowelltogether

Not sorry to see Pamela leave the stage either. I didn't wish her dead, but that was probably the only way she could exit. She wasn't going to settle down into obscurity.

I read and liked the Cusk trilogy. I think Transit, the middle one, is my favorite.

I too did a double take. Was her "condition" pregnancy? Did she "sacrifice" herself over Gwinnett? I guess I can read between the lines.

I'm listening to Juliet Stevenson read Eleanor Marx-Averling's translation of Madame Bovary, and I'm in love with it, both her reading and the text. It's like listening to butter. The events are bleak, but each sentence is a homage to the world in its every detail. #flauberttogether

Temporary Kings ended on an odd, morbid note. The fast forward in time at the beginning of chapter 6 was disorienting. Pam is dead of an overdose? And Gwinnett is teaching water skiing? Glober dead too. And Moreland. Poor Moreland. Vintage cars on parade. Life is strange. #anthonypowelltogether

How the narrator knows all he does about others is a perplexing question. Proust seems to be using the first person and omniscient third simultaneously.

"Court at your peril those spirits that dabble lasciviously with primeval matter..." Mrs. Erdleigh warns, while Pam screams with laughter, Polly remains cool, and Glober is, uncharacteristically, dumbfounded.

And tension is so palpable, Stripling ceases "to reel off names and dates of vintage cars" (what with mystic rays being trajected and all). 🤣

First time through I was just trying to make sense of this scene as narrated by a committee, but looking back it is laugh out loud funny: "rays of mystic disapproval trajected with force noticeable even in the dark." (to start with...) #anthonypowelltogether

I miss him already. Also, it's more than a little sad that the sordid subsequent events are what cheer and enrich him in his final months. :(

"Moreland talked about the scene right up to the end. He never tired of it. There can be no doubt it cheered his last months, added, as he himself said, to the richness of his own experience." Moreland not long for this world... #anthonypowelltogether

I agree. There are some revelations he has been hinting at since the beginning of this volume; I guess that's the climax. I didn't like the triangulated way he described it either.

Yes, I read to the end too. Don't want to say much yet.

Ah, that's a good point.

I'm intrigued reading this... didn't know that about Monroe. What a tactic, or response to awkwardness. Much to reflect on, too, re: scenes created of and for women in the nude-- vulnerability, control, exploitation, manipulation.

Love it.

Wow, I know so little about her. That the Brothers K was a favorite novel speaks volumes--and contradicts her prevailing image.