September '08 discussion thread: The Lace Reader

[Caryl]

Here is our discussion thread for The Lace Reader, our September group read. As always, be cautious of reading the posts below if you haven't finished, as they may contain spoilers.

[Maribeth]

This is one of those books that, as soon as you finish it, you want to read it again to see all the spots you didn't quite catch the foreshadowing. I guessed about half of it and was surprised by the other half.

This was a little slow to grab me but once it did, I had a hard time putting it down. I'm always intrigued by novels with twins so maybe that was the catch for me. In any case, I'll be interested in reading the author's next book since this was a good debut novel.

The concept of lace reading is rather interesting but I gave the author made it up? Anyone know?

[Ruby]

I've never heard of lace reading either. But I like the idea.

I don't know if I'm dumb or what, but I totally didn't catch on the there wasn't a living twin. Maybe I just read it too fast, but I'm still a little fuzzy on what exactally happened to Towner and what of Lindley's experiences were hers. Why did the aunt have to die? Was it a suicide just to get Towner to come back to Salem? I must have read it too fast - I'm usually not this dense - really!

[Maribeth]

*** Warning - LOTS of spoilers! ***






Ruby - it was a confusing book and I think I'm going to read it again in a few months so I can pick up all the nuances. I didn't catch on that Lindley wasn't alive through all of that either.

Lindley was stillborn so all of her "experiences" were really Towner's. The aunt (forgot her name) was really Towner's mother who went into labor early because of a beating. One twin died, the other lived. She couldn't care for Towner so the woman Towner thought was her real mom (can't remember her name either), was actually her aunt. Towner was abused by dad all her life and she developed a split personally so all the bad things that ever happened to her, she believed happened to Lindley because she couldn't cope with it all.

If I'm remembering this correctly, the great aunt who died must have really been Towner's grandmother???