Jul 2021
9:30pm, 26 Jul 2021
21,198 posts
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Columba
(Having read back) Olive certainly "came alive" for me, JB. I felt sad that she and her son had such a poor relationship. Come to think of it, I'm not sure that he - Christopher - "came alive" for me; not after he'd had therapy, anyway, and had all these slick answers for his mother.
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Jul 2021
9:41pm, 26 Jul 2021
49,932 posts
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McGoohan
I'm about 2/3 through Olive Again now and I feel it's the better book - it has been written to be a more coherent whole, I think. And - mile Spoiler Alert - Olive has a growing sense of her own flaws.
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Jul 2021
9:55pm, 26 Jul 2021
25,494 posts
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Johnny Blaze
With the Maine setting I was hoping for a Stephen King influence to creep in - perhaps the school was built over an Indian burial ground or summat.
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Jul 2021
11:21am, 27 Jul 2021
21,200 posts
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Columba
Just remembered one little quibble I had. Early on, a Catholic church named "Holy Mother of Contrition" is mentioned (where Henry Thibodeau's funeral is held). This seems like a very unlikely name for a Catholic church. In Catholic theology, the Virgin Mary is without sin; so she has nothing to be contrite about.
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Jul 2021
7:40pm, 27 Jul 2021
128,285 posts
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GregP
Immaculate conception and all that.
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Jul 2021
10:09pm, 27 Jul 2021
21,203 posts
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Columba
That's right; untouched even by Original Sin.
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Jul 2021
11:21pm, 27 Jul 2021
76,877 posts
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Hanneke
Annoying little thing that, now you pointed it out Columba... I am now looming for more such inconsistencies while initially I hadn't paused on it, even though I have been to Henry Thibodeaux's funeral.
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Jul 2021
6:16am, 28 Jul 2021
128,295 posts
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GregP
Sidebar ===
Even as an Anglican I get very cross when people, often ‘churchy’ people, claim that ‘virgin birth’ and ‘immaculate conception’ are synonymous.
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Jul 2021
6:18am, 28 Jul 2021
128,296 posts
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GregP
Can we go back to the second story now we’re all here? There seem to be two interpretations of the end. I thought it was the grimmer of the two options but the reviews on GoodReads suggest I am an outlier.
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Jul 2021
6:51am, 28 Jul 2021
49,941 posts
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McGoohan
I thought there was a reference in passing to the story later where it was said they survived? But my wishful thinking might have imagined that.
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