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The Gift of Stones - Jan 2020 - Book Group discussion thread

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westmoors Jan 2020 1:04pm, 13 Jan 2020 3,728 posts	Quote Pin westmoors Just finished this. Quite enjoyed it. Normally I get annoyed with different narrators, but in this instance I thought it worked quite well.
Diogenes Jan 2020 1:35pm, 13 Jan 2020 44,256 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes This may sound like a very dumb and unobservant comment, especially from the person who chose the book and has read it twice, but I can't say I noticed there being different narrators (isn't all from the POV of Doe's daughter who gives her version of events, or recounts her father's tales? Does that count as multiple narrators?). Perhaps that's an indication that it works well.
westmoors Jan 2020 1:36pm, 13 Jan 2020 3,730 posts	Quote Pin westmoors Some of it was her father narrating.
westmoors Jan 2020 1:36pm, 13 Jan 2020 3,731 posts	Quote Pin westmoors Or so I thought!
Columba Jan 2020 1:56pm, 13 Jan 2020 19,059 posts	Quote Pin Columba Odd little book, but I enjoyed it. Rather self-consciously "poetic" writing.
Columba Jan 2020 2:00pm, 13 Jan 2020 19,060 posts	Quote Pin Columba Read back. Agree with Nemo that the bronze age seemed to take over too quickly. I thought there was just one narrator, the girl, but she is telling it all from her "father"s point of view. Or nearly all of it.
Diogenes Jan 2020 3:37pm, 13 Jan 2020 44,258 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes Isn't that part of the point, the daughter presents us with variations as told by an unreliable narrator? Interestingly, the Bronze Age came to an abrupt end around 1200 B.C. in the Middle East, North Africa and Mediterranean Europe. It's not known for certain what caused the collapse "but many believe the transition was sudden, violent and culturally disruptive." A series of natural disasters such as series of droughts are thought to have played a part, along with associated famine. Social and political crisis and invasion by nomadic tribes may also have been factors. This sounds similar to the changes in TGOS at the end of the stone age. The transition from stone age to the Bronze Age (via copper) took place at different times in different areas over a period of about 3500 years. Despite this, it is possible that trade and migration could cause the shift to take place much more quickly in some communities.
LindsD Jan 2020 8:50pm, 19 Jan 2020 32,822 posts	Quote Pin LindsD Finally I'm here. I enjoyed this, thanks, Dio. I wouldn't normally have read it. I liked the descriptions of the stones, and the people, and the story arc about progress and those that don't see what's coming. I didn't like the constant unreliable narrator (doubled) and sometimes at the beginning I struggled to work out who was talking. I am ashamed to admit that I assumed it was a male narrator so it came as a massive shock to realise that the story was being narrated by the girl. I feel a bit stupid and sexist about that. I wondered as I reflected on the story whether we were supposed to also doubt her narration, as she says somewhere near the end that she was more like her 'father' in the story-telling sense. And then I just got annoyed. I like plots that are tricky to work out, but I also like some sense of whether I'm right or not. The fact that we don't know how Doe was killed annoys me. Or perhaps we do and I haven't worked it out. I found a lot of it made me feel quite uncomfortable and on edge, and for that reason I've given it a 6 rather than a 7. I did enjoy it and read it quite quickly, but the unease it provoked was sometimes hard to live with.
LindsD Jan 2020 8:52pm, 19 Jan 2020 32,823 posts	Quote Pin LindsD I thought there were multiple narrators - obvs....
Diogenes Jan 2020 11:45am, 20 Jan 2020 44,426 posts	Quote Pin Diogenes An excerpt from some study notes: "The narrator, a girl, tells about her father, a one-armed storyteller, but she primarily does so by allowing him to tell his own stories. He usually gives several possible versions of an event, each plausible and intriguing; she then guides the reader to the most plausible story and explains why she thinks it represents the truth. The girl, sifting and sorting through the stories, pointing up those things that are clearly lies, giving eyewitness accounts of those things she knows firsthand, is entirely credible as a narrator. Her credibility and her straightforward way of telling almost make the reader forget that much of what she tells is from her father’s stories."