Characters (Flawed and Otherwise)

Dear Reader, 

I hope you are treating yourself to this wonderful book and following along with us.

The authors of this book did something interesting by revealing all these wise and generous men of Guernsey to us and then contrasting them with Juliet's plague of a suitor, the egotistical Mark, who on the surface is supposed to represent all the things men think women are interested in.  He's rich and seems dashing and attentive. He cannot in the end, hold a candle to Dawsey, about who it can be said, "...let him walk into a room, and everyone in it breathes a sigh of relief." I loved it when he gave her a tour of Guernsey and she noted how he would stand back and allow her to enjoy the wonders of the island as long as she wanted. And what woman could resist a man that pigs are drawn to? :)

I was so pleased when Juliet came to her senses and threw Mark over. Imagining what her life would be like did it. "One year as his wife and I'd become one of those abject quaking women, who look at their husbands when someone asks them a question."  How sad if she had let that happen!

I took great interest in Will Thisbee (the rag-and-bone man) and his salvation from his search for religion by discovering Thomas Carlyle since I had finished not too long ago, that book of his letters to Emerson. You may recall that I bored you with numerous quotes from it several months ago. How amusing that the character of Thisbee found that Past and Present gave him "shooting  pains in (his) head. I've read a lot of books like that!

I liked the story that Professor J referred to before about Will's friend, Dr. Stubbins walking out on the Friends of the Sigmund Freud Society. The question he left them with is a good one: "Did any of you ever think that along about the time the notion of the SOUL gave out, Freud popped up with the EGO to take its place?" An astute observation and he was right to question the timing of it.  What do you think?

"Dr. Stubbins pronounced that you alone had transformed "distraction" into an honorable word--instead of a character flaw." I certainly related to that comment!  It was a great gift Juliet gave to them when she gave them a fresh way of looking at reading and discussing books.

I laughed when Isola discovers Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, and Mr. Darcy (I wonder if "Dawsey" is a bit of a tribute to that much loved character by the authors). The fact that she feels something has been kept from her and wonders what else might have been denied her was something I must say I've felt a time or two in life myself. Discovering something wonderful that everyone else seems to know about can make you feel just like Isola. I sympathized with her at that moment. Poor thing-- a life without Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet!

You may have noticed that I've been avoiding the more serious and sad parts of this book, heretofor.
While it has numerous entertaining characters and humorous stories concerning them, it is after all a story of war and occupation. The books and friendships are what hold the residents of the island together in their darkest hours, yet as the story unfolds the tragic demise of some and Elizabeth, in particular are heart rending. I'm getting to the real heroine of the story soon, she deserves her own post.

I'll put off that discussion until our good Professor returns.