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15 comments:
Wow! First thoughts are that I love books that take me somewhere that I've visited (like Tale of Two Cities, Paris, and Hotel of Bitter and Sweet, Seattle), and now Juno's Daughters, San Juan Islands, where our family had a wonderful vacation many years ago, riding the ferries, staying in small towns, visiting with locals and feeling the sea breezes.
Next thoughts are that these relationships were not familiar to me, so I was on an emotional roller coaster. I went from "maybe Jenny is wise and knows how to best deal with this kind of daughter" to "I don't like this mother/daughter competition with Jenny often thinking of herself (and her body and beauty)" to "Jenny is a caring and responsible person who is yearning for some romance in her life" to "why didn't she do something to help 13 year old Frankie deal with the nudity?"
I was okay with the ending and felt much better about the characters and their futures, but it gave me a lot to think about, as I was not a single mom, was not poor, and did not have a promiscuous, mouthy daughter who pushed limits constantly!
Good read.
PC
So glad you have fond memories of the S.J. Islands, too! I love hearing about your "emotional roller coaster."At book clubs I've skyped to (and visited) there has been a LOT of discussion about Jenny's choices (I wouldn't have EVER done that...I might have done that...Would I have?)and though I, too, am very different than Jenny in some ways, I often have felt on that roller coaster as a mother (and second guessed myself). I also have sometimes fallen into being (privately) judgmental of how friends have dealt with their more challenging kids--and regretted that, too. All feelings that went into the writing of the novel!
One great virtue of the book that I didn't realize until discussing it with some of you is that Jenny's actions are questioned a lot, rather than Lise S's decisions. It's a sign that the characters are well written when they seemingly do things on their own. I wondered, for instance, what Jenny was doing the long winter before this, and what sort of denial she was in, that she just never got around to discussing college or the future with Lilly. It didn't feel like a device L.S. had added as necessary to further the plot, it felt like what Jenny would do-- I was just trying to figure out how.
Interestingly, (at least to me) the one relationship that made me cry was that of Frankie and Phoenix. My mother and I are at a good place (and pretty much were when I was a teenager), my romantic life is settled, and being home with an infant and a two-year-old, dealing with teen children seems a long way off. Spoiled friendships, however, still get me in the gut. I wanted to smack Theresa and Phoenix, but they couldn't be blamed for growing up.
Aren't you glad you never need to be 13 again?
Good points, Sparky!!! You are right that I was mad at Jenny about some things...but not the author! Ha!
Also, I really liked Frankie. I felt for her and you are right, the end of her friendship was sad!
I thought the relationship with Andre would come back to haunt Jenny, but felt that was rather unsettled at the end of the book. I didn’t trust Andre’s intentions and was particularly suspicious of her inability to reach him in New York. Were we meant to think this relationship would just fade away?
I was caught off guard by Frankie’s actions (trip to Seattle) and did not buy her motivation. Seeking her father was a more believable objective than seeking out her friend.
Hi all,
So glad to hear you aren't mad at the author! I will say, it is a challenge to write a flawed character (and thus, one who is capable of real growth) without alienating readers. I love the comment about never wanting to be 13 again--of all the characters, Ariel is the one who seems (I hope) to remember what that was really like.
I'm inLas Vegas having too much fun. Finally got to where our computer is connected.
First off, Juno's Daughters was a bit different than my normal reading. I enjoyed parts of it and thought it was well wriiten. Jenny was a well developed character although very different from my values and lifestyle. As one of the old folks who read the book, my firts thought was that I am glad that I had sons insted of daughters. I had trouble with the mother/daughter competition over Trinc. I know it would be possible for Lilliy to have the crush, butit should not have been ignored, Don't ask how I would have raised Lilly, but she definitely was to free to do many things. I would never allow Frankie to do the naked rehearsal (even if she had clothes on). It was one of the oddest parts of the story.
I wish I would have known more about Jenny's relationshop with her mother and sister.
The Tempest was too unfamiliar to me and I'm not sure how it relatesto everything except it was the performance.
Thought you all might be interested in some ways the story relates to The Tempest. First, I started the book after seeing the play in the S.J. Islands--not for the first time, but for the first time since becoming a parent. I was struck by how much more than a romance it was, how it was a story of parents and children. Specifically, a girl who has grown up on an island, without knowledge of who she is, and who comes of age suddenly "in a world of men." When Miranda encounters men for the first time (other than her father) and doesn't even know what kind of "creatures" they are (or what the world is) I was alarmed at how vulnerable that extreme innocence made her. I can relate to the desire to raise a child away from the world, but I think the role of a parent is to somehow steer them between the shoals of extreme innocence--or extreme jadedness (hence the Lilly/Frankie contrast). Also, in The Tempest Prospero is eventually content to step off stage and retire from love (and much of life). I wondered: what if you weren't nearly done with romance when your Miranda came of age? And so, Jenny was born. There are other echoes that you may recognize if you read or see the play (but I hoped readers could enjoy the book without being familiar with the play. Indeed, my greatest hope was that readers of Juno's would go on to read The Tempest, too!).
I am 60% through.
I like it, my cousin lives on Orcas island so I am familiar with all the plces. and it conjures up great images, I miss wearing a sweater. yes, i read it sitting outside at 9pm in 90degrees... Too many names though. I get caught up in who is who and it would be easier if the names were like Jack, Sue (rich coming from someone who learns exotic names every 2 years) but I got all confused and caught up in the first pot luck scene and read it like 5 times.
oh yeah, I have two girls, very close...will they turno out the smae...one wonders...
1. use of character names was a distraction to me, particularly since i was not familiar with the play. (thought ariel was girl for way to long!) Fretted too much about what i was missing by not knowing the play, and the "why" of using those names.
2. i have seen seattle portrayed in other fiction and non fiction books and movies about the "throw-away" kids in seattle. i was not surprised by jenny's anxiety about lilly running away to seattle.
3. thought the nude rehearsal was a criminal lapse of parenting by jenny, on the level of actual abuse.
This book brought to me a yearning for the summer weeks I spent on Waldron Island as a kid and the summers I spent working on Orcas as a teen. I thought Lise did a fabulous job of capturing the quirky homespun hippy/intellectual/frontiersman flavor of island life and the weird juxtaposition of that with often conventional summer tourists.
As a mother of a 2-year-old, I have wondered a lot about permissiveness versus firmness in parenting. At times I thought Jenny was too permissive with Lilly but I also knew strictness would alienate a kid like Lilly and probably drive her completely away. I ended up thinking her handling of Lilly was probably the best way to go. I really liked how she dealt with Lilly wanting to be late to the reading. Not making it a power struggle with her, but letting her know she was accountable to other people who would have their own reactions to Lilly being late.
I liked the use of play names for the off-island actors. To me it seemed in each case that what was referred to by the play name was the part of the character that belonged to the summer and the island. It kind of made the island seem like more of a crucible where people can't get away from each other and relationships are intense (an experience I've had in the San Juans). Like, for a time, the off-islanders were defined by who they were on the island -- in relationship to people on the island, island culture, and the islands themselves. They didn't seem to focus on off island concerns until the end of the book when their ordinary names were used. To me it seemed like that was when they stopped belonging fully to the island and became more what they really always were -- people whos lives and concerns were by and large in other places.
Some late thoughts about the book. I thought I would identify with Jenny more than I did. Instead I felt sorry for her. I questioned her judgement like everyone else, but I also felt that she must have been so lonely to go after a man her daughter was interested in. I don't agre with it, but I could see the complexity. One thing that bothered me a little...I got the feeling that the author wanted me to judge Jenny. There were a couple of scenes where the tenderness of the children was contrasted with a dirty sponge where I felt I was supposed to judge Jenny for being dirty, and it kind of took me out of the story. Maybe I am just sensitive because my house is a wreck from moving, starting a new job, having a toddler, etc. But that was my experience.
I did like the book and thought many of the characters were rich and loveable. The Frankie-Ariel relationship was so sweet. I look forward to the next book. Thank you Lise!
Erin, I don't particularly remember the dirty dishes, but I would have taken them as the opposite-- "don't judge Jenny, she's working as hard as she can to make this family work and she can't keep her house clean, just like all of the rest of us". I'd wager that my house is worse than yours at the moment. It would take true filth before I would judge a character about her cleanliness, and even then it would probably be a gleeful response that someone has a dirtier house than I do.
SS-Interesting that we had different reactions to it. I see where you are coming from and agree that it is reassuring that we mothers are all in the same, cluttered boat.
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